Eriovixia gryffindori: New spider named for Harry Potter wizard

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) - A new spider species has been sorted into Gryffindor House.

A team of researchers - Javed Ahmed, Rajashree Khalap and Sumukha Javagal - recently discovered the small eight-legged creature, dubbed Eriovixia gryffindori, in the forests of the central Western Ghats in Karnataka, India. The spider was named after Godric Gryffindor, the legendary wizard from the Harry Potter book series who co-founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and established the institution's Gryffindor House.

The nocturnal brownish crawler, known to mimic dried foliage in the daytime, was so named because it resembles the film version of the Sorting Hat that belonged to Gryffindor and places first-year Hogwarts students into their school houses.

The researchers further explained the spider's etymology 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."

On Twitter, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said she was honored to have inspired the spider's name, and congratulated the scientists on their discovery of a new "#FantasticBeast" - a nod to her latest Wizarding World film, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

"We're excited to have found this new spider whose shape is similar to the magical sorting hat owned by the wizard [Gryffindor]. The discovery was made in Kans forest area of Karnataka," Ahmed told The Times of India. "As a youngster, I was very fond of reading Harry Potter books. So, when I encountered this tiny spider, I thought of the magical hat."

The research team's complete findings on Eriovixia gryffindori as publishedin the Indian Journal of Arachnology may be read below: