Jeff Daniels now has a parasitic worm named after him, but this was done as a pay of paying tribute to the acclaimed actor. Per Variety, scientists at the University of California, Riverside discovered a rare new species of a worm that attacks and kills tarantulas. Because Jeff Daniels' character took on a swarm of deadly spiders in the 1990 film Arachnophobia, the researchers officially dubbed the worm "Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi."

While there are 25,000 species of these kinds of nematodes, UC Riverside states Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi is only the second time one has ever been found to infect tarantulas. UC Riverside parasitologist Adler Dillman, who led the team that discovered the worm, noted that Daniel's character in Arachnophobia is a "spider killer, which is exactly what these nematodes are."

In a statement, Daniels himself said, “When I first heard a new species of nematode had been named after me, I thought, ‘Why? Is there a resemblance?' 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.”

Researchers discovered the jeffdanielsi after a wholesale tarantula breeder contacted Dillman in 2019 for help identifying a mysterious infection in some of their tarantulas. The new worm species has since been identified as the culprit, having the ability to cause the appendages that control the tarantula's fangs to stop working, eventually killing them from starvation as a result. Researchers are still looking to determine how the nematodes are able to change the spiders' behavior and paralyze their pedipalps and there are additional studies planned to get more answers.

Related: Jeff Daniels Recalls the Madness Behind Making Speed & Dumb and Dumber in the Same Year

Jeff Daniels Was the Ultimate Spider Killer in Arachnophobia

Daniels
Buena Vista Pictures

Released in 1990, Arachnophobia was directed by Frank Marshall and featured Jeff Daniels in the lead role. The film is set in a small California town that's ravaged by an aggressive spider species with Daniels playing a man who suffers from arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. He is forced to overcome that fear when he finds the queen nesting in his house, ultimately eradicating the spider threat.

"I was okay with them. Though I’d rather they weren’t crawling on my face," Daniels recounted of how he really felt about working with spiders, per Entertainment Weekly. His experience involved interacting with a nine-inch Amazonian bird-eating tarantula nicknamed Big Bob, and it sounds like it would have been a bit unnerving for anyone with a genuine fear of spiders to film.

”We had no rapport,” Daniels said. ”He’d rear up and hiss. They’d feed him a rat every weekend. It would be, ‘Have a good Saturday night, Bob. See ya Monday.”’

He added, ”I had a problem. Especially when the spider wranglers were off camera wearing thick, heavy loves, yelling, ‘If he comes after you, we’ll be jumping in right away.’ But meanwhile, it’s the movies, you know, and they’re going, ‘Let’s do it again. Let’s see if we can get him to crawl closer to Jeff’s hand.”’