MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Interesting Inverts part 2

Hi folks,

Part Two of my blog includes mention of spiders, which of course are not insects. I start with an obscure reference from 1904, in the form of a communication in Notes and Queries:

'As regards the venomous spider in China, I too have heard that there is one, but as to its name I cannot speak.-Yours very truly, JOHN BATCHELOR. Let us hope that some society, or some wealthy friend of learning and of missionary civilization, will find the funds for publishing Mr Batchelor`s laborious work before he dies. I had told him that there is in New Zealand a venomous spider called katipo by the Maoris, and that there is said to be another in China bearing the same name in Chinese. Is that a fact? The Religious Tract Society, 4, Bouverie Street, E. C. has lately published `The Ainu and their Folk-lore.` E.S.Dodgson (1)

Fortean Times no. 242 November 2008 carried a feature titled `The Spider Monster of Issoir` by Theo Paijmans - a tale of giant spiders in nineteenth-century Paris. American newspapers such as The Sandusky Register for February 1^st 1895 reported, on the death of a Parisian:

'The countryman was lying on his back writhing in the grasp of an unknown monster, whose horrible aspect froze the agents of police with terror. “It was as large as a full-grown terrier, covered with wartlike protuberances and bristling with coarse brownish hair. Eight jointed legs, terminated by formidable claws, were buried in the body of the unfortunate victim. The face had already disappeared. Nothing could be seen but the top of the head, and the monster was now engaged in tearing and sucking the blood from his throat.' (2)

This reminds me a bit about the scene with the priest Nathanial and the blood-sucking Martian in H.G. Wells`s War of The Worlds.

Jumping ahead to 1986 and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine in April of that year, this report appeared in The Times on February 14^th 1987:

'Bees knew secret of Chernobyl disaster: Polish bees headed straight back to their hives when they sensed contamination from the Soviet Union`s Chernobyl nuclear disaster while the rest of Poland was still in the dark about the accident, according to a beekeeping expert. Mr Henryk Ostach, who heads the Polish beekeepers` association, said apiarists were baffled when bees hid for several days after the explosion at the reactor. “When the explosion occurred, the bees interrupted their flight, although it was a fine sunny day. Not yet knowing anything about what had happened at Chernobyl, we wondered why the bees suddenly hid in their hives. They surrounded their queen very closely, beating their wings constantly in order to minimize the permeation of contamination.' (3)

Moving ahead to February 1992, we had an occurrence of a mole cricket in the South Pacific. This was passed on to me by Darren Naish:

'8 February 1992. AT 2000 UTC whilst approaching the coast of New Zealand a beetle or grasshopper-type insect,…was found on the starboard bridge wing,apparently basking in the early morning sun. When approached it reared up on its back legs and started to move its front legs in a grasping motion. The front legs appeared to be developed into `armour-plated` gripping devices as they had hooks and claws along the lower and front edges. The head was also armour-plated with four tube-like antennae protruding from the front of the head beside the jaws. Set above these were two feelers which were 23mm long and the insect had powerful jaws. (4). Darren wrote besides the artists impression of the mole cricket: “ I think this is a mole cricket…but I didn`t know they lived in the South Pacific.”'

Lastly, coming right up to date with a report from The Guardian November 5^th 2009:

`Towering ants` nests in woodland get protection:

“ A rare “skyscraper city” made by ants has been given the equivalent of listed building protection and a place on maps to safeguard it from forestry work. Nests up to two metres (7ft) high, constructed from conifer needles in Northumberland woodland, will be monitored during the felling of “intrusive” 20^th century conifers in Holystone, near Rothbury. The whereabouts of 69 structures, made by colonies of the hairy northern wood ant, have been plotted. The species is Britain`s largest, but on a human scale, the nests dwarf the ants by a greater measure than the Empire State Building.(5)

That`s all, folks. For reasons too tedious to go into I cannot provide song lyrics today but they will be back tomorrow.

1. E. S. Dodgson. Untitled article. Notes and Queries April 2^nd 1904 p.265

2. The Sandusky Register in T. Paijmans The Spider Monster of Issoir Fortean Times November 2008

3. Anon The Times February 14^th 1987. Bees knew secret of Chernobyl disaster.

4. Anon Insects. South Pacific Ocean. The Marine Observer. 63(319) Jan.1993 pp14-15. The Marine Observer occasionally reports on unknown animals or surprise occurrences.

5. M. Wainwright. The Guardian November 5^th 2009. Towering ants nests in woodland get protection.