Six 'fantastic beasts' with Harry Potter-inspired names
- Published
Discovered in a study by the University of Western Australia (UWA), this ghostly ant was given the name Leptanilla voldemort by Harry Potter fan and lead researcher Dr Mark Wong. He said that the ant's pale and slim appearance reminded him of Lord Voldemort, the main villain in the film and book series. Australia has the widest known variety of ants out of any country in the world, and Leptanilla voldemort are just one of the 14,000 species of ant worldwide. Speaking to the UWA, Dr Wong said that Leptanilla voldemort live below the ground, where they have adapted "to life in the darkness" - much like their evil name inspiration. He even joked about calling it "the ant who must not be named"!
Say hello to Harryplax severus! Keen Potter fans will recognise Severus as the first name of a certain Severus Snape, the teacher at Hogwarts. The crab was found in Guam more than 20 years ago by a researcher called Harry Conley. It wasn't until years later that the crab was found to be a totally new species when it was looked at by a new team. One of the team, a massive Harry Potter fan, decided to take the opportunity to name it Harryplax severus. Harry because of Potter himself but also in memory of Harry Conley who found the crab and Severus because Snape was good at keeping secrets and so is this crab apparently. Maybe it's really because he's a huge fan.
Can you spot which one of these is a spider and which is the famous sorting hat from Hogwarts? The little spider on the left was found in the Southern India. One of the researchers was a Harry Potter fan and decided to name Eriovixia Gryffindori after the owner of the famous sorting hat - Godric Gryffindor. It's unique shape is to help the spider pretend to be a dried leaf to escape predators, but it won't tell you which wizarding house you to belong to.
The Ampulex dementor is definitely not something you would want to see flying around your picnic! Named after the terrifying Dementors from the Harry Potter universe, this wasp injects its prey with a venom that causes them to lose the ability to control their body so the wasp can drag it away to a safe place where it eats it. Scary stuff for sure, but don't worry, this wasp eats cockroaches and is also found Southeast Asia not England. The wasp was named by visitors to the natural history museum in Berlin after the Dementors because they steal the soul of their victims.
This is Dracorex Hogwartsia or "The Dragon King of Hogwarts". It was named by a team of scientists at the Indianapolis Children's Museum in the USA. Easy to see why, its spiky head makes it looks a lot like a Dragon! But Dracorex wasn't as fearsome as the dragons of the Harry Potter world, it didn't even eat meat. The fossil of Dracorex's skull was donated to the Children's Museum by the scientists who found it for study in 2004.
This little colobus monkey was nicknamed 'Voldemort' by staff at Paignton Zoo and I think you can see why! His big black eyes, ghostly white skin and the tiny slits for nostrils that the Dark Lord in Harry Potter is famous for. Ok so it isn't her official name, but we couldn't leave it off our list. Just look how cute she is, just like the real Voldemort....ok maybe the real Voldemort is not cute at all but this tiny monkey certainly is!
- Published15 May 2023
- Published27 February
- Published14 April 2023
