Spider That Looks Like ‘Harry Potter’ Sorting Hat Named After Gryffindor
Sure, a spider being sorted into Gryffindor may be a nightmare for Ron, but for "Harry Potter" fans, it's probably pretty awesome.
Hagrid told Ron and Harry to "follow the spiders" in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
Now, scientists are also doing that in real life, which led them to a newly discovered species of spider that looks oddly enough like the Sorting Hat.
Arachno-naturalists Javed Ahmed, Rajashree Khalap and Sumukha J. N. have even named the new spider species Eriovixia gryffindori because of that Sorting Hat.
She's so cute! I wonder if she would say I belong in Hufflepuff, too?
You can find the spider in Western Ghats, Karnataka, India, according to a paper published in the Indian Journal of Arachnology, and not in the Forbidden Forest as I had assumed.
Who even keeps a forbidden forest that close to a school anyway?!
The paper reads,
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.
These little cuties are known to have their very distinct triangle-shaped shell, which is responsible for the spider's resemblance to the Sorting Hat.
They're also nocturnal and hide in dried foliage using pretty legit camouflage during the day, which I would do if I could get away with it.
The team has only found a female of the species, meaning there is still a lot more to discover about the male.
Citations: HARRY POTTER'S SORTING HAT INSPIRES THE NAME OF A NEW SPIDER SPECIES (Nerdist)
