Three scientists in India have discovered a new species of spider with an uncanny resemblance to the sorting hat in "Harry Potter" prompting them to name the arachnid after the original owner of the magical hat.
Harry Potter Fans
The scientists, who admitted that they are fans of the boy wizard, discovered the spider in October 2015 during a survey conducted at the Western Ghats mountain range in southwest India.
One of the scientists, Javed Ahmed, said that the team agreed to name the 7-millimeter spider after the sorting hat if it would be proven to be a new species.
Godric Gryffindor's Sorting Hat
The sorting hat is an enchanted headwear in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that sorts and assigns new students to their houses. It originally belonged to Godric Gryffindor, one of the founders of Hogwarts.
By June this year, the scientists confirmed with 100 percent certainty that the eight-legged creature they came across last year was a new species so they went ahead and gave the nocturnal spider its new name: Eriovixia Gryffindori.
"This uniquely shaped spider derives its name from the fabulous, sentient magical artifact, the sorting hat, owned by the (fictitious) medieval wizard Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and stemming from the powerful imagination of Ms. J. K. Rowling," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in the Indian Journal of Arachnology.
The spider uses camouflage to protect itself. The scientists reported that the spider hides in and mimics the shape of dried leaves to avoid predators.
Discovery Of Another Fantastic Beast
J.K Rowling, the creator of the popular series ,expressed her delight through Twitter congratulating Ahmed and his team for the discovery of another "fantastic beast."
"How many geeks have the opportunity to describe a species, much less name it, after a pop culture icon and then have the creator of that icon tweet you saying she was congratulated and honoured? I was so thrilled!" Javed said.
Many newly discovered species have been named from popular icons. A yellow spider in Malaysia, for instance, was named after rock star David Bowie.
The report of the spider's discovery was made after the recent release of the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a spin-off of the "Harry Potter" series and was also based on a book written by Rowling in 2011.
