Scientists Name Newly Discovered Eyeless Spider After Blind Flying Wyvern From Monster Hunter

Scientists, the original nerd, occasionally like to remind us of that fact by influencing the real world with a geeky reference, this time with a spider named after a flying beastie from Monster Hunter.

As reported by VG247, a newly discovered spider from China has been named the Otacilia Khezu after Khezu, the flying wyvern from Monster Hunter. What do spiders and flying wyverns have in common? Nothing, really, but this spider has no eyes, just like its namesake.

Khezu, which look like fairly normal wyverns from the shoulders down but quickly break that tradition with incredibly long necks, a giant fanged mouth, and retracted eyes due to spending most of their time in darkness, were introduced way back in the original Monster Hunter from 2004.

Pointed out by @SilencedVouivre on X/Twitter, the same scientist who named the Otacilia Khezu has also named myriad other real world animals with nerdy references. These include Funny Valentine and Gryo Zeppeli from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and even another Monster Hunter reference with the Rathalos genus.

this the same mf who came up with Funny valentine, Gyro zeppeli and the Rathalos genus… pic.twitter.com/BCJ6Q6ve5C

— Corvus_大夕儿爆彈 (@SilencedVouivre) June 28, 2024

There are plenty of other scientists doing the same too, however. The Saurona butterfly was named after the Lord of the Rings’ villain, the Venomius Tomhardyi was somewhat bizarrely named after Tom Hardy’s Venom films, and the Tachymenoides Harrisonfordi snake was named after the Indiana Jones actor.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.