Indian based Mumbai researchers discovered a new species of spider in the Central Western ghats in Karnataka. The spider has been named after a popular Harry Potter wizard. This is mainly because of the magical hat shape that the spider looks like– a wizard’s hat. The spider which is barely 7 mm long has the scientific name of Eriovixia Gryffindori. It is named after the founder of the Gryffindor house, Godric Gryffindor. The wizard owned the hat in his fictional lifetime, that was later used by the school for sorting students in the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling.
The name was published in a paper on Saturday, as part of Indian journal of Arachnology. Researchers and naturalists Javed Ahmed, Rajashree Khalap and Sumukha Javagal made this discovery in the forests sprawling on the Eastern ghats. In the last two years, they made five such other discoveries of new species of spiders.
Javed Ahmed, the discoverer, a self-proclaimed Harry Potter fan said,”We’re excited to have found this new spider whose shape is similar to the magical sorting hat owned by the wizard (Godric Gryffindor.) The discovery was made in Kan forest area of Karnataka.” He added that the weird shape of spider was to camouflage itself as dried leaf in the day time.
Speaking about Harry Potter obsession, he said, “As a youngster, I was very fond of reading Harry Potter books. So, when I encountered this tiny spider, my first thought was of the magical sorting hat.”
In the book and films, the hat of Godric Gryffindor was used to sort students of wizard school, Hogwarts into four different houses. The Gryffindori spider uses this hat shape to its advantage of not only hiding but also for trapping its prey.
