# @ucdavis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DfDBvWalB8z
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/79273642-ucdavis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/7c14bb407f.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-10-28T18:00:59.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Davis | California's College Town (@ucdavis) — https://gondola.cc/ucdavis

## Caption

Researchers at UC Davis, have found one particular trapdoor spider, Aptostichus stephencolberti (the "t" is silent 🤫), which is about the size of a quarter, is big in another way: It has an outsized genome.

Given comedian Stephen Colbert’s (colbert) pompous pundit persona in the former Comedy Central show “The Colbert Report,” it seems fitting that a spider named for him would have a genome roughly 50% larger than the human genome.

In 2008, Colbert learned that corresponding author Jason Bond, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, had named a trapdoor spider after rock musician Neil Young and developed a bit of spider envy. He used his segment, “Who’s Not Honoring Me Now?” on “The Colbert Report” to demand a spider be named after him. Bond obliged.

Read more about the spider by visiting https://ucdav.is/4zg6VK0 or clicking on this post's thumbnail in our profile link. 

#UCDavis 

Image description: A close-up of a trapdoor spider with a white and dark blue gradient background. White text reading "Scientists Sequence Genome of Spider Named for Stephen Colbert" and the UC Davis logo.

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## Tags

ucdavis

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