Two New Spider Species Named After Spider-Man Actors

Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the two most recent live-action actors to play Spider-Man onscreen, have been recognized with a pair of new spider species named after them.

The discovery of new species isn't particularly uncommon, especially in relatively unexplored areas.

These particular new species were called to the attention of ComicBook.com as a result of an e-mail from one of the co-authors of the paper. According to that message, the spiders -- named Filistata maguirei and Pritha garfieldi -- are endemic to Iran and known only from the surroundings of Geno Biosphere Reserve (Hormozgan Province, southern Iran) and southern macroslopes of Alborz Mountains (Tehran Province, northern Iran); the full range of neither of the species is currently known. The two species were described by arachnologists Yuri M. Marusik (Magadan, Russia) and Alireza Zamani (Tehran, Iran) in the open access journal Arthropoda Selecta.

You can see their full paper here.

"Both new species belong to the family Filistatidae; commonly known as Crevice Weavers, these spiders are mostly nocturnal, prefer living in crevices and holes in rocks and walls and are common in and around houses and may also be found in under barks and tree logs," wrote Zamani. "Some species build tubular retreats and signal lines which extend out from the entrance of the web in all directions. In some species of the family, unusual longevity and resistance to unavailability of food and water has been recorded. They are venomous, but do not pose a risk to humans. According to the recent studies, Iran has an unusually high diversity of this family."

Well, it seems Tom Holland has something to look forward to!

Photos of the two spiders in the gallery below are courtesy of Ali Mohajeran.