A spider strongly resembling the famous Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter novels and films has been named Eriovixia gryffindori in tribute to the works of JK Rowling.
10 points for Gryffindor! A team of Indian researchers has just named a tiny species of spider recently discovered in reference to the works of the novelist JK Rowling, the famous mother of Harry Potter. The animal now responds to the sweet name of Eriovixia gryffindori. A Latin name chosen which refers to one of the many iconic objects in the universe of the saga: the magic sorting hat. The spider bears an uncanny resemblance to the shape of the talking hat bewitched by one of the four founders of Hogwarts School, Godric Gryffindor. Sorting Hat which, as you surely know, assigns Hogwarts first year students to their respective houses for the rest of their schooling.
The sorting hat had chosen Gryffindor for Harry, Ronald, Hermione and Ginny and so the Indian scholars chose Gryffindor to name the spider. The scientists explained their choice to name the tiny spider – 7 millimeters in wingspan – in the journal India Journal of Arachnology: it is » an ode to authors, to magic lost and found, in an effort to draw attention to the fascinating, but too often overlooked world of invertebrates and their secret lives « .
The now famous spider was discovered in the bushes of a forest located on the Western Ghats, a mountain range that borders the west coast of India. Its small size and its very particular silhouette thus allow it to shade it and blend into the vegetation in order to escape predators. The team hopes, by this small wave of the wand, that this inspirational name will attract more attention to the study of invertebrates such as spiders, an area of research that unfortunately is often neglected.
Source