@jk_rowling We named a spider, after the sorting hat, from the films! :) Meet Eriovixia gryffindori. Link to paper: https://t.co/XpGcCy4TO6 pic.twitter.com/Qwf1fid7W7
— Javed Ahmed (@curiocritters) December 10, 2016
A real-world fantastic beast has joined the wizarding world of JK Rowling. A new species of spider discovered in the forests of Karnataka in India has been given the name Eriovixia gryffindori because it resembles the Sorting Hat used to classify Hogwarts students in the world of Harry Potter. According to legend, the hat originally belonged to Godric Gryffindor. The spider is described in the Indian Journal of Arachnology.
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, wordsmith extraordinaire, as presented in her beloved series of books, featuring everyone’s favorite boy-wizard, Harry Potter. An ode from the authors, for magic lost, and found, in an effort to draw attention to the fascinating, but oft overlooked world of invertebrates, and their secret lives.
You might guess that the three scientists who authored the paper all grew up reading the Harry Potter books. Unless you are schooled in arachnology jargon, this is the only paragraph in the entire paper you'll understand. But the picture pretty much says it all. Rowling herself was honored by the news. -via Uproxx