Adler Dillman, a professor in the Department of Nematology and ETOX faculty member, and his research team recently discovered a new nematode that kills tarantulas. They named the nematode
Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi, after Jeff Daniels, the actor in the 1990 film Arachnophobia whose character saves a town from a deadly infestation of spiders. As quoted in the
UCR News release, Jeff Daniels received the recognition with humor saying “Honestly, I was honored by their homage to me and Arachnophobia. Made me smile. And of course, in Hollywood, you haven’t really made it until you’ve been recognized by those in the field of parasitology.” In addition to
UCR News, the story has been picked up by a variety of news outlets including
Salon,
Popular Science,
Newsweek,
Daily Mail,
New York Post, among others. Our congratulations to Adler and his research group for the discovery and recognition. [The photo was taken by Adler and shows a tarantula infected by the nematode parasite.]
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