When a spider is first described to science, it’s given a Latin or Greek name. This is THE name. This is the “scientific name.” These names are chosen by the taxonomist who first describes it (or, in some cases, by the spider’s discoverer), but must adhere to rules set forth by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. For example, the genus name Eriophora means “wool-bearing” in Greek; those spiders are covered in wooly hairs, which prompted Eugène Simon to select that naming in 1864. On the other end of the spectrum are names that have nothing to do with the