Please do not stop at my episode. I will not be offended if you skip it entirely, in fact, but do lend and ear to other installments of the show. Podcasts, I am happy to report, are free of the formality and constraints of traditional media, and allow us to confront issues and topics at a more visceral level. No sound bites here, but far better connections with those who tune in.
Interviewing with Alie Ward on her wildly popular Ologies podcast got me thinking about the internet from the perspective of entomologists, both professional and aspiring amateur. You simply cannot take anything too seriously. You must laugh at yourself when you do. Here are some broad categories of fun and frustration for your entertainment.
One enduring complaint of professional entomologists is memes. They are nearly always an oversimplification, if not outright misinformation, intended to be the last word on the subject. Memes are sometimes insulting, insinuating that anyone holding a different view is illiterate or worthy only of ridicule. Mostly, memes reveal more about their creator or re-tweeter than they do about the audience, let alone the subject. Those memes that are obviously humorous are the ones I like best. I have even created a few of my own.
One of my favorite scenarios is when someone who wants a particularly large insect or arachnid identified places some object next to it “for scale.” The object is frequently monetary currency, a coin for smaller creatures, and some paper denomination for larger organisms. I cannot resist retorts like “This just in, spiders begging for money, film at eleven,” or “Please do not give them money, they will only use it to buy pheromones.”
Other objects include pocket knives, car keys or fobs, disposable cigarette lighters….Terrific. The insect isn’t scary enough, we have to give it a weapon, too? “That one looks like it is going to kill you with fire!” “What you have there is a nymph, it’s not old enough to drive!” I try to provide legitimate identifications for people making those requests, but I enjoy having a little fun, too.
A truly agonizing situation is when some random individual posts images of an insect or arachnid I have been dying to see myself and never found. Why? Why?! (grimaces skyward, shakes fists in air). In fairness, the person posting had to have some degree of curiosity to bother photographing the thing, but too often I still convince myself that true appreciation of the animal has been wasted on this dude at his barbecue.Someday I’ll see a living Rainbow Scarab beetle, or a California Horntail wasp. Right?
Social media is both a blessing and a curse to entomologists. It can inform and illuminate, but also circulate misinformation and irrationality at light speed. Perhaps nothing better illustrates this dilemma than the proliferation of bee versus wasp memes.
My friend Devon Henderson posted the above meme on Facebook today to solicit reactions from her colleagues in entomology. Note that I have heavily edited the captions to make the meme "family-friendly." The overwhelming consensus was that such simplistic and inciting graphics are more devastating to public education than they even are "amusing" to people who know better. As one respondent replied,
" The fact people keep posting them in naturalist forums (without your critical comment) annoys me, as if everyone will find it hilarious and haven't seen them a thousand times before. People seem very bad at judging audiences. Also, bad language doesn't bother me personally, but it is bad manners to post it on general forums."
Memes are at best a shortcut to express an opinion. Usually, they are insulting to the subject or hurtful to better-informed members of the intended audience. One respondent to the top meme responded:
" I reali[z]e this is the entomological equivalent of racism: stereotypes, false assumptions on these different species mostly coming out of ignorance and fear. 'Ha ha, wasps are assholes! Ha ha!'"
Indeed, one overriding theme in the comment thread of the Facebook post was that people are uneducated enough already, without adding to their false assumptions with such nonsensical memes. Devon comments:
" It bothers me that people actually think that wasps are vindictive and seek people out. They can't rationalize and reason like a human. They act solely on instinct. But people still choose to ignore this fact and continue to accuse wasps of being the 'bad guys.' It's extremely ignorant to assume that a wasp is conscious of its actions and stings people for the sake of unprovoked 'revenge.'"
As far as I am concerned, memes like this are the equivalent of war propaganda that dehumanizes the "enemy," and spam that pollutes one's e-mail and social media accounts. Perhaps it is fitting that I am posting this during the U.S. Presidential campaign season, when vitriol is spewing from the mouths of most all of the candidates and their ill-informed supporters. There is little difference between wasps and Republicans if you subscribe to the meme agenda.
I suppose pest control companies and insecticide manufacturers are in no hurry to discourage anti-wasp memes, but thankfully there are those of us with a good "following" of proactive students of entomology and ecology who are spreading the facts. I have the good folks at Ask an Entomologist for initially posting on this very subject, back in 2014 no less. Even beekeepers like Dave Green recognize wasps have their positive attributes:
"The public is finally beginning to realize how important bees are, as our primary pollinators; the next step is to become aware of how vital the wasps are as our primary pest controls. I judge the health of a garden by the number of paper wasps that are working though the plants hunting (pest) prey."
Maybe we even need to start flooding the internet with our own counterattack of memes, as Joe Ballenger has done. He deftly incorporates wasp biology into his memes making female wasps oddly empathetic to the plight of our struggling American middle class.
I thank each of you in advance for calling out the idiocy of memes that paint wasps in a villainous light; and who consistently share their own experiences, knowledge, and imagery that demonstrates the positive aspects and fascinating behaviors of wasps. If all else fails, though, I am certain that Devon would gladly permit you to post her own artistic meme in response to the bad ones.
Anyone on Facebook or other social media outlet has probably seen the latest in creepy-crawly videos, a creature purported to be a giant spider. The truth is, as usual, more fascinating and less disturbing. The horror part comes from the fact it is yet another example of a stolen video taking on a life of its own.
The creature in the video is not a spider at all, but a different kind of arachnid called an amblypygid or "tailless whip scorpion." One of my friends from Facebook, Laura Lee Paxson, tracked down the species as Euphrynichus amanica. It ranges in Kenya and Tanzania in east Africa. This animal, and its more widespread sister species E. bacillifer, are available in the "hobby" trade and as a result much of the information and "fright factor" is emanating from that community. It is important to note that responsible pet trade personnel are shedding a good deal of light on the biology of such poorly-known species.
The gentleman who generated the viral video is Adrian Kozakiewicz, an 18-year old in Germany (originally from Poland) who has earned an esteemed reputation in the international arthropod-breeder community. Unfortunately, unscrupulous hacks have taken his innocent intentions and re-published the video with false information and needless scare tactics.
Tailless whipscorpions belong to the arachnid order Amblypygi. They are not venomous, or dangerous in any way. They are overwhelmingly tropical in their geographic distribution. Most are found inside caves, under bark on trees, and in cracks and crevices on cliff faces from which they emerge at night to hunt other invertebrates. The front pair of legs are modified into exceptionally long, antenna-like sensory appendages used to detect both prey and potential predators. Fine hairs (setae) on the whip-like legs sense the slightest changes in air currents, directing the animal toward prey, or the nearest hiding place.
The spine-tipped "arms" are actually the arachnid's palps, akin to a scorpion's pincers, modified for grabbing or pinning prey. The video shows the amblypygid lashing out at Adrian, but the intended effect is to merely rebuff the perceived threat. Animal rights activists may see this as "taunting" a poor animal, but it is a brief and instructional demonstration of the animal's behavior, too.
Like wolf spiders, scorpions, and vinegaroons, amblypygids exhibit some degree of parental care after the young are born and before their first molt.
Should some version of this video other than the original show up in your social media, please do not share it, and do what you can to acknowledge Adrian in any comments. You might also wish to report the post to discourage future bad behavior and interrupt the viral nature of stolen material. Thank you.
Sources: Anonymous. 2016. "This Young Entrepreneur Owns a Place Among the Largest Invertebrates Breeders in Europe," Viral Subjects
Polden, Jake. 2016. "Why would you want to poke THAT? Insect breeder taunts freaky-looking whip spider....and gets bit multiple times," Daily Mail.
Schramm, F. 2011. "Euphrynichus bacillifer (Gerstaeker, 1873)," Panarthropoda.de.
I could write blog posts about internet hoaxes from here until the end of time. The latest is a "killer bug" that you should not kill with your bare hands because it spreads a lethal virus that also disfigures your skin. What a crock! Thanks to Hoax-Slayer we have the straight scoop.
Well, I can tell you about the insect pictured. Truth may be stranger than fiction in this case. Males of giant water bugs in the genera Belostoma and Abedus care for the eggs of their mates by carrying them on their backs. That's right, these giant water bugs, far from being people-killers, are the poster children for what a caring father looks like.
The female giant water bug adheres her eggs to the back of the male, and he then guards them. He keeps the ova free of fungus, and well-aerated.
Ok, so what about the horror of that human hand? According to Hoax-Slayer, it is the work of a make-up artist, wrought of putty rather than some horrid disease. The sponge-like texture and pattern simply resembles the hatched eggs on the back of a male giant water bug.
Similar hoaxes have used photo-editing techniques to merge lotus pods or the mouths of lampreys with human body parts, the better to gross-out viewers.
According to an article on Snopes.com, yet another factor comes into play. The meme may be targeting people with "trypophobia," a supposed fear of holes or fear of irregular patterns of holes. No such phobia is documented in scientific literature, however. So, apparently this hoax is a triple-header: fear of insects, fear of disease, and fear of holes, all wrapped up in one whopper of a tale.
There is a slight grain of truth to this over-dramatized viral meme, though. Giant water bugs are predators of other aquatic organisms, and they deliver a venomous bite to paralyze their prey. The venom contains enzymes that aid in extraoral digestion. That is, the saliva begins breaking down tissues of the prey so that it can be withdrawn through the insect's beak and into its digestive system. The bugs will bite in self-defense, too, so handling them should be discouraged for that reason.
Ah, if only truthful information spread as quickly and effectively as fear-inspiring hoaxes like this. Please do your part by investigating the validity of a given meme before sharing it....or share it with a bold disclaimer. Thank you.
Last week I posted a "how to" article on making identification requests online. I think it is only fair to suggest how to appropriately respond to identification requests. There is much needless redundancy on threads aimed at helping someone identify a given organism. Here are some ways to avoid that, as well as saving yourself time, embarrassment and/or criticism. Actually, the best default option is often to not respond at all. So, let's start there:
Do not respond to an identification request unless....
Ok, what else can we do, or not do, to make an identification request more efficient and productive? Here are some ideas....
I may or may not have covered everything here, so please comment with your own suggestions, including what I should have omitted. I may well revise this post accordingly.
The internet has made the scientific community vastly more accessible to the general public, but social media has taken that to yet another level. Whereas it once took hours, if not days, of research to get an answer to a question, or the identification of an organism in an image, success can now be had in minutes. Facebook in particular has exploded with specialized "groups."
No matter how offbeat your entomological interest there is no doubt a Facebook group devoted to it. Are you a moth fanatic? Ha, so are over 3,300 other people who have already joined the "Mothing and Moth-watching" group.
You might worry that the membership represents a "blind leading the blind" assortment of amateurs or newbies, but most of the time there are plenty of professional entomologists and experienced citizen scientists offering help, sharing announcements of new research, or simply posting stunning images. Take the "Hymenopterists Forum," for example. I have queried this group a number of times with images of wasps, bees, or ants that I was having trouble identifying. I am always met with courtesy and respect, though I am careful not to post too much, too often.
Are your interests regional in nature? New groups continue to sprout which are regionally-centered geographically. I know because I have started four of them myself. Maybe you want to know more about dragonflies and damselflies of the southeast U.S. Voila! "Southeastern Odes" is at your service.
One of the most wonderful aspects of Facebook groups is that they usually have a global membership, and you can always stand to learn from others in far-flung locations around the world. The "Friends of Coleoptera at the Natural History Museum" group reflects beetle experts at the museum in London, England, for example, but they are incredibly friendly to everyone, and highly knowledgeable of beetles from all over the planet.
Still can't find a group that suits you? The answer is easy: create your own. Facebook makes the process of founding a group very easy and relatively intuitive. Do pay attention to the settings ("public," "closed," "secret"), and be mindful that as an administrator you will need to be vigilant to welcome new members, delete spam and its originators, and post regularly to keep your group on the Facebook radar.
I had to be metaphorically dragged into social media back in 2009, but I could not be more grateful to those who nudged (pushed?) me into it. Through Facebook I have made many new friends in the truest sense, learned more than I could have imagined, and helped others. I highly recommend taking full advantage of social media avenues in your own pursuits.
October is one of my favorite months, made all the sweeter in the last three years because I have participated in the “Arachtober” group on Flickr.
Many folks who photograph insects and other small animals save the spider images they have accrued over the year to share with the Arachtober pool. This is because one of the few rules of the group is that you post only those images that have not appeared on your Flickr photostream previously. It is worth the wait.
Sometimes, participants forget that there are other arachnids besides spiders: mites, ticks, scorpions, whipscorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, and others. A few members of the group actually find things like ticks to be too disgusting to embrace even in the artistic sense. A few scorpions and “daddy long-legs” pictures will still manage to appear, though.
The biggest challenge to Arachtober’s popularity this year may be the graphic changes brought to Flickr as a whole by its new owner, Yahoo!. Fewer people view my own photostream any more because of the new format that has rendered Flickr just a shadow of its former clean, aesthetic past. The initial outrage demonstrated by the Flickr faithful has either faded, been completely ignored by Yahoo!, or both. The future of photosharing may be Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, but mobile devices really don’t do quality images justice.
All the same, I invite you not only to follow Arachtober daily, but to participate as well by sharing your own images of all things eight-legged. Thank you.
I swear, sometimes I feel the “Spider Sunday” feature on my blog is a completely useless exercise. There are so many recurring hoaxes and urban legends about spiders that raise their ugly heads again and again and again,…now spread even faster through social media! Thank you so much, Facebook. Please feel free to share this post the next time you see an idiotic spider hoax surface. Here is my list of the worst of them, in no particular order.
Lethal spider species lurks under toilet seats. What anyone would have against the lovely and completely harmless Two-striped Jumping Spider Telamonia dimidiata is beyond me, but it is the chosen villain in a sinister campaign to scare everyone off of toilet seats in airports around the world. The original version blamed the non-existent Arachnius gluteus spider. The name alone should have tipped people off as to the authenticity of the reports (and made wise people smile and chuckle).
Daddy long-legs are the most venomous spiders, but they can’t bite people. First of all, “daddy long-legs” are not even spiders. They are arachnids, but in the order Opiliones and more properly called “harvestmen.” They are not venomous at all, and are mostly scavengers and opportunistic predators on weakened insects.
The average human swallows “x” number of spiders per year in their sleep. This is complete bunk (but I did once wake up with a dead German Cockroach in my mouth).
Somebody’s houseplant cactus explodes, liberating baby tarantulas. Really? Tarantula mothers don’t stick their eggs in cacti. They carefully wrap them up in a silken sac and guard them tenaciously at the bottom of their burrows. Once the eggs hatch, the female continues to guard them until their next molt, at which time they disperse.
The “Hobo Spider” is dangerously venomous. This is false, but also an enduring mystery. Tegenaria agrestis is native to Europe where it is most certainly harmless. Individual spiders from populations introduced in the U.S. have been implicated in necrotic wounds. One plausible theory is that victims of spider bites (or other puncture wounds wrongly attributed to spiders) have developed secondary bacterial infections. Stay tuned for further developments.
The above are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, of course. A more complete listing can be found on Rod Crawford’s Spider Myths Page. When in doubt yourself, you can also consult Snopes.com, or one of the other websites cited in this article from TechRepublic.com.
Thank you for your attention, we now end this rant and return you to your regularly-scheduled programming of truth, fascination, and beauty.
