quote:the star attraction of the Melbourne Museum's live insect exhibit - an illegally imported baby goliath tarantula - will never leave its quarantined enclosure. The baby was seized last month after it was smuggled from Denmark in a canister inside an air mail parcel. The museum's head of etymology [sic], Dr Ken Walker, said the spiders were not dangerous to humans. – The Age (Australia), Historic home for smuggled spider, July 27, 2004
Obviously the word should have been 'entomology'.
But carrying it further, my understanding is that 'entomology' is the study of insects, and that spiders, having eight legs, are not insects. Comments?
"Head of entomology and arachnids" is a mouthful, and I've never heard of "arachnology", so I would assume entomology has expanded from insects to other small critters.
Arachnology exists as a word; see Wikipedia. The Wikipedia entry on entomology says:
quote:Strictly speaking entomology is the scientific study of insects. However, this definition is often widened to include the study of other terrestrial arthropods.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
My friend, Dean, who studied entomology over at Giannini Hall, while I was studying etymology in Dwinelle, is an amateur arachnologist. He once invited me to a meeting of the Pacific Arachnology Society (may not have been its real name but that's how I remember it). It was held in a museum that was exhibiting Gary Larson cartoons, after hours, and was quite strange and fun. (I still have the special tweezers that I had to buy in case we needed to handle any live critters. Dean's also interested with pseudo-scorpions and vinegaroons. There's a lot of cross-over in these fields. One of the people attending had brought a weird looking spider in a peanut jar, and asked one of the leading experts: "What's this?" He answered: "I don't know, but it looks weird. Where'd ya get it?" "Came off a ship that docked in Oakland, the other day." "Ooh. Haven't a clue." (Very strange.) There's very little money to be made or had in arachnology. Hence very little in-depth research, except in special star cases like the black window or the brown recluse. Insurance companies have had them studied extensively.
There's very little money to be made or had in arachnology. Hence very little in-depth research, except in special star cases like the black window or the brown recluse. Insurance companies have had them studied extensively.
Do you mean insurance companies have studied the black widow or the brown recluse extensively? Why? Lawsuits when someone is injured?
I am surprised to hear that there isn't much money in that field. I wouldn't think there'd be any more or less than in other studies of biology. It seems as though we study animals and birds quite extensively...I wonder why not arachnoids (or is it arachnids?)?
Do you mean insurance companies have studied the black widow or the brown recluse extensively?
Or insurance companies provided money for the study of those two spiders. I remember finding the worker's insurance claims for the ranch I grew up on (from the '20s and '30s). There were an awful lot of black widow spider bites on workmen's nether parts. The black window likes to build its web in dark, calm places, like beneath the seats in an outdoor privy.
As for grant money to research spiders, yes, it's probably no worse than the other biologies. My friend Dean (who now teaches math at a local JC) discovered that most entomological jobs outside of academia are with state and county pest control management. His wife, Carol, also an entomologist used to work in the port of LA (in San Pedro) inspecting all the creepie crawlies that had come in on the banana boats, etc. She works for OSHA now.
That building with the Gary Larson cartoons is the California Academy of Sciences. Great place.
quote: I remember finding the worker's insurance claims for the ranch I grew up on (from the '20s and '30s). There were an awful lot of black widow spider bites on workmen's nether parts. The black window likes to build its web in dark, calm places, like beneath the seats in an outdoor privy.
Yeeks. Yet another reason to avoid outhouses. I'd heard this story, but I have never been able to get it verified. I'm glad to hear it from a primary source.
My 2 sisters live in Phoenix where the black widow spiders are plentiful.
My sisters hate the snow, but I would much rather shovel my car out of a ditch than to have a black widow spider crawling around my home. Each to his/her own, I guess.
I just know there is a word for fear of spiders...is it something like "arachnophobia?"
than to have a black widow spider crawling around my home
They rarely leave their webs and when they do they're rather helpless. You're thinking of wolf spiders, who roam around the house looking for insects. You pretty much have to go to a black widow and get bit.
Thanks neveu, yes, it was the Cal Academy of Sciences. Fun place.
quote:Originally posted by arnie: Hmmm... The tenor of this thread makes me even more glad to be living in England, where we have no poisonous spiders.
And I'm glad I don't live in Australia, where the "black widows" are three times as large, (redbacks) and poisonous snakes abound. Wherever you are, there's bound to be some risk, I suppose...
They rarely leave their webs and when they do they're rather helpless.
Hmm, I am going to have to talk to my sisters about that. That isn't my recollection, jheem. They seemed to run into those Black Widows all over the place.
I was sure that the English invented poisonous spiders.
We won't tell Richard about this thread, now will we?
Our climate doesn't lend itself to poisonous creepy crawlies, it seems.
We have only one highly poisonous creature of any kind and that our adder. So rare are its victims that I don't think that the number of fatalities reached double figure in a century.
Australia, though, has the highest concentration or poisonous things that crawl, fly and swim of any place in the world. (And that's not even counting Fosters beer).
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
We won't tell Richard about this thread, now will we? 
