Spider from India looks just like 'Harry Potter' sorting hat
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Eriovixia gryffindori (Sumukha J. N.)
A spider with a fantastic appearance straight out of the world of "Harry Potter" has been discovered in the Indian state of Karnataka.
With a distinctive pointy body, the little brownish spider looks just like the sorting hat, and the scientists who found it have named it Eriovixia gryffindori. The arachnid’s scientific name is in honor of the wizard Godric Gryffindor, who first possessed the old hat that sorts the students into one of the four houses at the Hogwarts school.
The three scientists behind the discovery— Javed Ahmed, Rajashree Khalap, and Sumukha J. N.-- gushed about it whimsically in the Indian Journal of Arachnology when describing where the name came from.
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“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,” the authors write in the study. “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.”
Ahmed, the first author on the study, took to Twitter to announce the magical discovery.
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Eriovixia gryffindori; our new species named after the sorting hat from @jk_rowling books Kudos to my brilliant coauthor @INDogProject pic.twitter.com/L8U0aeXdak
— Javed Ahmed (@curiocritters) December 10, 2016
And J.K. Rowling herself, the creator of the series, even tweeted about it, saying that she was “truly honoured!”
.@curiocritters I'm truly honoured! Congratulations on discovering another #FantasticBeast! 👉🕷✨ pic.twitter.com/NJ4Fe27F1r
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 11, 2016
The spider’s appearance reportedly helps it look like not the sorting hat, but a leaf, thus serving as camouflage.