Meet the Arachnid Named After Smeagol from Lord Of The Rings

You may find this hard to believe, but a lot of scientists are kind of geeks. We've covered before the insects and spiders named after comic book characters, fantasy and sci-fi actors, and more.

Well before he became Gollum, there once was a character named Smeagol - and now he's a terrifying pale, blind, underground dwelling arachnid.

The Iandumoema Smeagol is a harvestman or "daddy long legs" arachnid that lives its entire life underground. It evolved to become completely pale and to have no eyes at all, typically living close to water in caves. Only 14 of these have been discovered so far, so don't expect them to start crawling out of the woodwork anytime soon.