--- title: Spider Species Named After Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama description: The Spintharus berniesandersi is a tiny spider found in Cuba that is colored yellow and measures just a millimeter. canonical: https://time.com/4957265/bernie-sanders-barack-obama-spider/ author: Rachel Lewis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-26T15:40:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:27.799Z article:section: Science og:title: Meet the New Spider Species Named After Bernie Sanders og:description: There's one for Michelle Obama, David Bowie and Leonardo DiCaprio, too og:url: https://time.com/4957265/bernie-sanders-barack-obama-spider/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd98be084b657a8f8/6988df63929fad6ce4bedd33/bernie-sanders-spider.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore" Welcomes Senator Bernie Sanders As Guest On Tuesday, January 5, 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the New Spider Species Named After Bernie Sanders twitter:description: There's one for Michelle Obama, David Bowie and Leonardo DiCaprio, too twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd98be084b657a8f8/6988df63929fad6ce4bedd33/bernie-sanders-spider.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the New Spider Species Named After Bernie Sanders > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Sep 26, 2017 3:40 PM UTC  Senator Bernie Sanders on Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore" on January 5, 2016. Senator Bernie Sanders on Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore" on January 5, 2016.Bryan Bedder - Getty Images by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Sep 26, 2017 3:40 PM UTC What do Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama Michelle Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio and David Bowie have in common? Thanks to researchers at the University of Vermont, they all have a new species of spider named after them. Researchers gave the celebrity names to a group of tiny yellow spiders originally thought to be the same species. The _Spintharus berniesandersi,_ for instance, is a tiny spider found in Cuba that measures just a millimeter long.  Courtesy of Ingi Agnarsson/Agnarsson Lab [Professor Ingi Agnarsson](http://www.theridiidae.com/ingi-agnarsson.html), who led the research project, [explained to Sci-News](http://www.sci-news.com/biology/fifteen-new-species-smiley-faced-spiders-05260.html) why they gave the eight-legged creatures such recognizable names: “The students and I wanted to honor people who stood up for both human rights and warned about climate change — leaders and artists who promoted sensible approaches for a better world.” “Until now, the beautiful yellow smiley-faced spiders in the genus _Spintharus_— named for a smiley face pattern on their abdomens — has been thought to have one widespread species from northern North America down to northern Brazil,” Agnarsson added. But the study, [published on Tuesday](https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx056/4222834/A-radiation-of-the-ornate-Caribbean-smiley-faced?redirectedFrom=fulltext) in the _Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society,_ reveals that the spiders are actually many different types of species. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4957265/bernie-sanders-barack-obama-spider/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4957265/bernie-sanders-barack-obama-spider/"},"headline":"Meet the New Spider Species Named After Bernie Sanders","datePublished":"2017-09-26T15:40:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:27.799Z","description":"There's one for Michelle Obama, David Bowie and Leonardo DiCaprio, too","url":"https://time.com/4957265/bernie-sanders-barack-obama-spider/","keywords":["animals","Barack Obama","Michelle Obama","Leonardo DiCaprio","Bernie Sanders","David Bowie","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd98be084b657a8f8/6988df63929fad6ce4bedd33/bernie-sanders-spider.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd98be084b657a8f8/6988df63929fad6ce4bedd33/bernie-sanders-spider.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore\" Welcomes Senator Bernie Sanders As Guest On Tuesday, January 5, 2016","caption":"\"The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore\" Welcomes Senator Bernie Sanders As Guest On Tuesday, January 5, 2016","creditText":"Bryan Bedder - Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4957265/bernie-sanders-barack-obama-spider/","name":"Meet the New Spider Species Named After Bernie Sanders"}}]}] ```