The spider was named after Colbert after he reported on his television series
The Colbert Report that
Jason Bond, a professor of biology at
East Carolina University, named a different species of spider
Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi, after the
Canadian rock star
Neil Young. Colbert was angered by the fact that Bond had not named a spider after him, and began to appeal for a species of animal to be named after him. He claimed that he already had an eagle and a turtle named after him (although not
taxonomically), so there was no reason that another animal could not be named after him as well. On a later edition of
The Colbert Report, Colbert revealed that Bond would name a spider after him, with Colbert claiming, "And all I had to do was shamelessly beg on national television." The two men talked on the phone to decide which spider should be named after Colbert, but as there were 27 different species of spider available, Bond was left to make the final choice. The name
Aptostichus stephencolberti was officially announced as the spider named after Colbert on
The Colbert Report on August 6, 2008. Because Colbert pronounces his surname with a silent "T", the last "T" in
stephencolberti is also silent. ==See also==