Newly discovered spider named in honour of Hogwarts sorting hat

THE famous sorting hat from the Howarts School of Wizardy in Harry Potter has been discovered in the wild, sort of.

The famous character been discovered in the wild ... In spider form.

THE all-wise sorting hat from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the beloved Harry Potter books and movies has been discovered in the wild.

Well, a spider that looks like it at least.

Researchers have named a newly discovered species of spider after the famous hat since studying the bizarre-looking arachnid found in southwest India.

Researchers in Mumbai officially named the spider Eriovixia Gryffindori in the Indian Journal of Arachnology because the appearance of the spider resembles the character from the Harry Potter series.

Judging from the paper published by the three scientists responsible for the discovery, it’s abundantly clear they are fans of the novels written by British author JK Rowling.

Under the heading of ‘Etymology’ they explained their choice of name.

“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 JK Rowling, wordsmith extraordinaire, as presented in her beloved series of books, featuring everyone’s favourite boy-wizard, Harry Potter,” they wrote.

The spider was discovered in Western Ghats, a mountain range in Karnataka, southwest India.

The colour and the shape of the spider’s unique abdomen does evoke memories of the Hogwarts sorting hat, which when placed on a student’s head decides which school house they will join. But the choice of name was about more than paying homage to one of the scientist’s favourite authors.

The researchers also hoped it would help draw attention to the discovery of the spider — a tactic that has clearly worked. And it seems JK Rowling is pretty happy with her latest accolade.

“I’m truly honoured! Congratulations on discovering another #FantasticBeast!” she tweeted this week.

As for the spider, it uses its brown, pointy body to help camouflage itself by blending into surrounding dry leaves in its environment while it sleeps.

The tiny insect, about 7mm in length, is not poisonous, but still, probably don’t one on your head if you happen to find it in the wild.