The worm – named Tarantobelus jephdanielsi – was discovered by scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and is one of more than 25,000 nematode species, but only the second found to infect tarantulas.
In the 1990 film “Arachnophobia,” the researchers played Dr. decided to name the worm after Daniels for his role as Ross Jennings, in which his character saves a California town from a spider infestation.
“Honestly, I was honored with his tribute and arachnophobia. Made me smile,” he said. “And of course, in Hollywood, you haven’t really made it until you’ve been recognized by those in the field of parasitology.”
Adler Dillman, lead researcher and an associate professor of parasitology at UCR, was contacted in September 2019 by a bulk tarantula breeder who told him that many tarantulas with white ones around their mouths had died.
Dillman and his team identified him as having been infected with jeffdaniels. Researchers said the infected tarantulas were seen walking on tiptoe and not eating. They also lost the ability to use their pedipalps – the organs that control their fangs.
What the species should be called was an “easy decision” for Dillman, who told CNN on Thursday that Daniels was “very kind about the whole thing.”
“We had a lab party where we saw the movie on Halloween in 2019,” Dillman told CNN via email. “I already knew that I wanted to name the nematode after Jeff Daniels because of the obvious connection.
“I’m an ’80s kid, so I grew up seeing arachnophobia and love Jeff Daniels and his work,” Dillman said. “But I wanted to convince the rest of the lab that naming the nematode after them was the right move. What better way to do this than to watch the movie, which is totally on the way.”
jeffdenialesi is described by the team as “self-fertilizing hermaphrodites that produce their own sperm and eggs” and can produce up to 160 offspring during their lifetime.
Dillman said it could take months for a tarantula infected with zefdanilsi to die of starvation, but the infection was fatal. He and his team plan further studies to understand how infections develop and change tarantulas’ behavior, and whether they can be prevented by breeders.
,