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Tarantula-infecting parasite named for actor Jeff Daniels. ‘Is there a resemblance?’

More than two years ago, a wholesale tarantula breeder discovered the creatures in their care appeared to be foaming at the mouth — and dying. Now scientists are set to publish their research as to what caused the bizarre phenomenon.

And they’ve given it a celebrity’s namesake.

Jeff Daniels, the award-winning actor who starred in “Dumb and Dumber,” “Allegiant” and “The Newsroom,” can add a tarantula-infecting parasite to his list of accolades after scientists at the University of California, Riverside, named a newly discovered species of worm after him. It’s the second of its kind found to infect tarantulas.

“When I first heard a new species of nematode had been named after me, I thought, ‘Why? Is there a resemblance?’” Daniels told UC Riverside in a news release announcing the discovery.

Not quite.

A tarantula visibly infected with jeffdanielsi.
A tarantula visibly infected with jeffdanielsi.

The white mass that appeared on the breeder’s tarantulas wasn’t foam; it was a common type of worm known as a nematode. Scientists said the worm latches on to a tarantula’s mouth, causing them to stop eating and eventually starving them to death. The worm’s killer instincts are somewhat similar to Daniel’s character in the 1990 movie “Arachnophobia,” in which he plays an arachnophobe who must save a California town from an infestation of poisonous spiders.

“His character in the film is a spider killer, which is exactly what these nematodes are,” said Adler Dillman, the UC Riverside parasitologist who led the team that discovered the nematode.

And that’s how the worms came to be known as “jeffdanielsi” — a distinction Daniels seems to take pride in.

“Honestly, I was honored by their homage to me 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.”

There are 25,000 species of nematodes, making it “one of the most abundant animals on Earth,” UC Riverside said in the release.

“Nematodes have been around for hundreds of millions of years. They’ve evolved to infect every kind of host on the planet including humans,” Dillman said. “Any animal you know of on planet Earth, there’s a nematode that can infect it.”

But discovering one that infects tarantulas — i.e., a tarantula parasite — is rare, the university said.

Only one other nematode has ever been found on tarantulas, a discovery first made in Europe. According to the release, the research on that species of nematode concentrated on the worms themselves and not the worms as they were found on spiders, which was the focus of Dillman and his team’s research.

Dillman was contacted by the tarantula breeder for help identifying what was infecting the spiders, UC Riverside said, and he immediately identified the white blotches near their mouths as nematodes. Further study showed the spiders were exhibiting odd behavior — such as walking on tiptoes and not eating. Their fangs also stopped working correctly.

“It may take months because tarantulas don’t have to eat particularly often,” Dillman said in the release. “However, if they get this infection, they will die of starvation.”

Dramatization of the jeffdanielsi parasite attacking a tarantula.
Dramatization of the jeffdanielsi parasite attacking a tarantula.

Dillman and his team also observed how the jeffdanielsi procreates and whether it can live elsewhere on a tarantula.

They discovered the worms are “self-fertilizing hermaphrodites,” meaning they produce their own sperm and eggs. On average, a single nematode can make about 160 babies during its lifespan, which, in a lab, is about 11 days. Scientists aren’t sure how long the worms can live on a tarantula.

The nematodes also only seem to live in and around the mouth, Dillman said. None were found in the spiders’ stomachs or elsewhere on their bodies.

But one mystery remains: how the jeffdanielsi are able to alter a tarantula’s behavior while paralyzing the organs that control its fangs. Dillman said he plans to conduct more research on the phenomenon as well as study ways in which breeders can combat the parasite.

The initial research on jeffdanielsi was published in the January/February 2022 edition of the Journal of Parasitology.

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