It appears that even the animal kingdom isn't safe from the influence of the Clown Prince of Crime, as a new species of spider has been named "Loureedia phoenixi" after Joaquin Phoenix, who famously played the Batman villain in last year's hit film Joker.
As detailed by Live Science, the species was first discovered in Iran, and was the first Loureedia spider -- named after late musician Lou Reed of Velvet Underground fame -- to be identified outside of the Mediterranean region, with the findings being published in this month's issue of the Arthorpoda Selecta journal. The name Loureedia phonixi was coined due to a red-and-white pattern on the backs of the males of the species that looks like the Joker's iconic grin. However, due to the species measuring in at about 0.3 inches (8 millimeters) long, some form of magnification would be needed to view said pattern.
As noted by arachnologist Alireza Zamani, a biodiversity doctoral candidate at Finland's University of Turku, finding Loureedia spiders -- which are part of the Ereside family, also called velvet spiders thanks to their thick and silken fur, and have displayed bizarre behaviors that have intrigued arachnologists -- is a problem, as they only come to the surface for about three weeks a year.
"These spiders spend most of their lives in their subterranean nests," Zamani told Live Science. Zamani explained that the males leave their burrows to hunt for the females "usually from late October to mid-November," while spiderlings who have left their mother's nest go the surface as well. In addition, scientists are still looking for the presence of females, going to areas where males were found.
"Ideally, if you have enough time and patience, it would be interesting to track a wandering male. He should know how to find the female better than anyone else," Zamani added. "This way, you would also have the chance of observing and photographing the actual mating behavior, which has not been documented for any Loureedia species yet."
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais and Shea Whigham. The film is now available on Digital HD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD and DVD.