You haven’t really made it in Hollywood until a tarantula-killing worm is named after you. That’s a distinction that The Newsroom actor Jeff Daniels can now brag about.
UC Riverside parasitologists named a newly-found parasite Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi. The worms, known to infect tarantulas, are named so because Jeff Daniels played a guy who fought a deadly infestation of spiders in the 1990 film Arachnophobia.
The parasitologists discovered the lethal worm through a report filed by a wholesale tarantula breeder. After analyzing the odd white mass found around the specimen’s mouth area, they quickly realized they were dealing with nematodes, more commonly known as worms. Once the eight-legged creatures get infected by this worm, they begin developing strange behaviors like walking on tiptoe and not eating. Over time, inability to eat would kill the arachnid. It literally is the spider killer, just like Daniels’ character.
Image: Adler Dillman/UCR
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Tarantula infected by the Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi worm.
Actor Jeff Daniels as Dr. Ross Jennings in Arachnophobia (1990)
Image: Arachnophobia/IMDB