The Real-Life Spider Named After One Of Hagrid's Pets From Harry Potter

It's fitting that the wolf spider was the inspiration for the giant human-hunting spider of "Harry Potter" fame. Wolf spiders actually get their name from the canine predator of the same name because of their similar hunting strategies, explains National Geographic. Instead of spinning webs, the spiders run and jump on their meals, then inject

It's fitting that the wolf spider was the inspiration for the giant human-hunting spider of "Harry Potter" fame. Wolf spiders actually get their name from the canine predator of the same name because of their similar hunting strategies, explains National Geographic. Instead of spinning webs, the spiders run and jump on their meals, then inject them with venom or pound them to death. While this might sound terrifying, in real life these spiders are only 0.24 to 1.2 inches. 

There are more than 2,400 species of wolf spider, according to the Zootaxa study. The 2017 discovery was actually made by accident, per CNN. The University of Tehran-based research team was looking for butterflies. However, as reported by Live Science, on April 26, 2016, they found a strange female spider instead.

They determined it was a separate species because the female genitalia was different from other species of wolf spiders (via CNN). The spider was 1 inch long and 2 inches wide, with eight eyes and a hairy body. That hair made two black and three white stripes on the spider's upper body, per Live Science.

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