Hello and welcome to Inverticast. I of course am Leah from Tarantula and with me as always
is Simon from the Mantis Garden. Hello Simon. Hello.
Oh it's so good to have you. Oh thank you Jeff, wanted.
Well you are, you're very wanted here. And today, excuse me, today we are going to be
talking about Orthoptera, which translates directly to straight wings. But this classification or
order of insects includes grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, katydids, and cicadas. And I'm pretty
sure there's a few others but those are the main guys that I found through my research. So yeah.
Hello everyone watching. Welcome. So glad to have you guys here. So alright. Sorry. So I have like,
I'm kind of hyper so I'm all excited. Okay. So basically about this classification of insects,
all of them produce noise. So all of them either chirp or they have songs that they sing. They're
usually large to medium size but we all know that we all know that they can be also very very small
because we get very small crickets for you know our inverts that eat them. And their habitats are,
they occur mostly in like terrestrial habitats but a few are semi-aquatic. So meaning that they
they spend a lot of their time in the water. I didn't happen to find anything on a semi-aquatic
species of any of these but that's okay. Maybe we can dive deeper later and find those. Sorry.
Was that a joke? Dive deeper. You caught me. Yeah a little bit. So the nymphs or the babies of these
guys they resemble adults but they don't have wings. So once they get to that adult stage that's when
they get their wings and their front legs are where they have tibial auditory organs. So their
ears are actually on their front legs which is that's kind of trippy. I thought that was weird.
Can you imagine being able to hear with your front legs? I thought that was an oar. Like an oar was one of them anyway.
You're like, oh excuse me can you talk into my arm? Okay. And then their back legs are saltatorial
which means that they're basically modified for jumping and leaping. So these are all jumping
critters like grasshoppers, locusts, they all jump. Same with crickets. There are 25,000 described
species in this class and they are also divided into two sub-orders. One of them being the caliphora
which would be the grasshoppers, locusts, and mole crickets. And the other classification would be
the ensophora which is the true crickets, katydids, and bush crickets. So I believe bush crickets is
just another word for cicadas. I could be wrong but I think I read that. It's not. We actually have bush crickets here.
Oh okay. Not many. There's only a little place that still has them that are actually going extinct in the UK.
But yeah we do have bush crickets. I think they're not cicadas. I didn't know the scientific name but I can't remember it.
Huh. That's fascinating. I mean they're all related so I mean like a lot of the time when you hear
locusts, you know they're actually talking about a very large grasshopper. So they're all kind of in the same
order obviously in classification. It's just that they're just different enough if you will.
So I found some pretty good information on katydids and if you don't know what a katydid is,
they are an insect that look like a little leaf. So they literally look like a walking leaf.
They've got the head like grasshopper so they've got kind of that round kind of pointed head.
Their eyes are pretty small. They've got those antenna. They actually have some pretty large antenna.
And then the rest of their body is essentially a leaf. And so yeah they just look like a leaf with legs.
And there are 6,000 species of them and they are mostly nocturnal. And they produce a song that's
repetitive and each species of katydid has its own song. And they occur pretty much in every region
of the world except for Antarctica. They can be found like living in trees, bushes, grass,
and they live for less than a year. The eggs are the only life stage or their larval stage is the
only stage that they can actually survive winter through. And most of them eat leaf matter although
there are some katydids that are predators or predatory. So they eat like other insects.
And yeah that's pretty much what I found on katydids unfortunately but I love them. I
think katydids are really cute. Like I don't know. Anytime I see a katydid I'm like oh my gosh it's
good luck. Yay! I've never seen one in the UK. Really? I think we have one or two species here.
Okay. And only down south. And yeah never seen one of ours. So we've very rarely seen
crickets or grasshoppers over there. We don't see those either. Man I thought they would be
pretty prevalent in the UK because you guys have, I mean it's pretty lush there yeah. I mean
there's a lot of foliage. It's always wet and damp and it's never really that warm.
Especially up in the northern side of things. We tend not to, we don't get them around where I am.
I know down south you are a bit more prevalent but here not so much. You see them in summer.
If you go on a summer walk you'll see them. The grasshoppers are the crickets. I've never bothered
catching them. You need to find out. You know they'll jump when you walk near them. But they're not
what you would expect. There's not millions of them. Okay. There is in this box though. You can
probably hear them. Yeah I can hear your crickets. You said you had a big little colony of them yeah?
Yeah I do. I've bred black crickets for the nymphs. Oh that's awesome. These guys will never get eaten.
These are all adults. They'll never get eaten. They're here just to make a racket.
And to lay eggs. That's all I happen for. Babies that get eaten sadly for them.
Perfect size for tiny manta snakes. For tiny manta snakes. Nice. Yeah they're a constant supply of eggs.
Oh yeah I bet. You just keep changing the substrate in a tub. You put a new tub in.
A couple of days they've filled the tub with eggs. So you just take that out and put new one in.
And every five ten days you've got new baby nymphs. Nice. That's awesome.
It's a cheap way of feeding them. Right you don't have to spend so much money on the post and stuff
to get your crickets. Yeah the adults and staff are there and you know take some out.
Right. In case I have boxes behind the ears. I grow a few of them on and then
constantly cycle if you like. Yeah perfect. Eden Inverth says that wild hoppers are everywhere down here.
And I don't know where down here is. Who is that? Eden Inverth.
Oh yeah. Well again down south it's in Kent I think. Yeah Kent.
Okay. Kent sorry somewhere like that. Which is down below London.
Okay yeah. Again it's surprisingly a really big difference in temperature
and down that normally. I'm not surprised because here oh he says
Eden says I'm south of Eden Bridge Kent. Okay cool so you were right.
But yeah no I'm not surprised that there's a temperature variations in the regions of
of the UK because yeah I mean here in Colorado like you know here you might be in Denver
and it might be like 50 degrees or you know and it feels kind of cold but if you just travel about
three hours south to Pueblo you're gonna find that it's you know five degrees warmer.
Same within the summer time if you know if the summer time it's too hot down in the city
all you have to do is go about an hour hour and a half up into the mountains to like Georgetown
and it's at least 20 degrees cooler so yeah it's definitely you know regions definitely vary quite a bit.
So. Well we get that on the south coast right on the south coast there is wild stick insects.
Three species in the UK down near Devon, Calmore that sort of area.
They wouldn't last up here. That five to seven degrees makes such a difference
and the length of summer makes such difference. Wow. Because we're the only living like
let's be honest they live about nine months so your Katty Gaines, your grasshoppers everything else
you've got nine months. If you don't get that warm weather for that period of time it can't reproduce
it can't survive that's why we don't have mantis. It's a simple reason they don't have time to grow
to live or to reproduce to lay their eggs etc and that goes for a lot of bugs so down south have
so many more bugs than we have up here. We're what 200 miles away.
200 miles north is a big difference. I can imagine. When it comes to like the north
it makes a massive difference so a lot of things like you talk about stuff like
castages, cicadas and like cicadas yeah never seen one. We've seen them abroad.
Crickets, bush crickets I think bush crickets live in one county in England.
Okay. They go in that extinct they only live in one place. Wow. So it's really it's just one
of the places in England. It's rather the UK as a whole. Scotland has got half of anything populated
so you know down in Cornwall or Devon or somewhere like that which is way down south.
Well Bazan says that of course he'll put one in Simon's care package for you
so you're going to get yourself a katty did. That's in Devon the place I've been talking
about. He lives in Devon which is really really on the south coast. It's luxury down there.
To me now it'd be summer you know I would think it was summer. So okay it's crazy because we want
right like we 10 degrees it's t-shirt. You can wear a t-shirt outside for us. Yeah. Throw
shivering at 10 degrees but for us it's normal. It's you know it's fine. That's like a normal day
yeah. Unfortunately the bugs jump a gap quite as well as we do to that massive temperature change.
Oh yeah absolutely. I mean yeah no they it's weird because even here like at the higher
altitudes and stuff there are almost no bugs no insects whatsoever. Once you get past that
tree line there's a tree line at about I believe it's 13 000 14 000. No it's definitely like 12 to
13 000 feet. The trees stop growing and then it's all just mountain. It's all just rocks
and there are no insects up there. None. So let's talk about locusts. Locusts are a acrididae
which is cool but they usually will increase greatly in numbers and then they migrate for
long distances but they are very destructive to like leaf matter and whatnot because that's what
they eat. So they tend to have a pretty negative effect on like farming areas and agricultural
businesses but smaller species are called grasshoppers. So grasshoppers are a type of
locust. The theory of two phases in which they live so the one they have one solitary life phase
in which they they pretty much just you know they live they eat they mate they die but the other
is a gregarious life phase where they can be distinguished by the coloration their form
physiology and behavior. During the gregarious phase they respond to it's a response essentially
to the violent fluctuation in the environment. Where did you go?
Okay no so it's a it's actually a response to a violent change in their environment
and so basically these massive swarms will form in marginal regions where the suitable habitats
are scarce and then they will swarm and become like these massive just swarms and they won't
stop flying or swarming essentially until their environment changes with like rain or
uh decreased temperatures darkness these sort of things. And there was actually in 1869 I found
this very fascinating there was a a huge swarm of desert locusts that reached all the way to
the UK from like West Africa. So they went all the way from West Africa to the UK where you are
in a massive swarm because yeah so and that was that's pretty recent that was about 150 or so
years ago so just a huge swarm that got all the way to the UK. Do you do you know anything about
that? I don't know um I just know now they're sending wives from West Africa to the UK.
Oh wow. I'm just going to show you this actually which I don't think you get to see but oh cool
that's a horse head grasshopper. Oh wow. Unfortunately unfortunately you can't see
I was hoping you could but it's not big enough. That's another half a terry.
Which is is one that normally gets overlooked because it looks nothing like a traditional
grasshopper. Yeah right I mean traditionally grasshoppers are they're green they're about
you know an inch and a half or so long they've got um they've got kind of a round body that's
pointed at the end and then of course they're green and they're green and they're green and
body that's pointed at the end and then of course you know they're they're really big big hind legs
for that leaping. What a beautiful grasshopper though that's amazing it looks like a little stick.
Yeah they do look like stickings like they actually get like this big. Oh wow wow. They're
quite a big and they can jump really really well. Oh that's incredible. But I just realized I thought
I thought no I thought apart from the oh yes I've got this. Heck yeah. Also grasshoppers.
Shady thing says I love that silly grasshopper thing. Thanks Shady. I love it too I've never seen
one. Yeah they are they are a fantastically weird looking face. They're beautiful. Yes they're an
amazing creature. A friend of mine sent me some of these. Sadly some got out of the enclosure and
there was tiny when he sent them and I can only imagine where they've gone. So
Nanty's belly I should imagine. This guy's managed to make it this far so welcome to get an
owl. It's a shame he wasn't an owl because you really can see how big they are. They do get quite
quite a massive sort of thing for a grasshopper but when you look at that you wouldn't say
oh yes that's a grasshopper. Right no I wouldn't think that at all actually.
Because it looks like a stick insect. Yeah it does. It's definitely got a fast made look about it but
it is a grasshopper. So yeah anyway sorry about that. No don't be. That was that was wonderful.
I appreciate that you have a living example of a really cool species of grasshopper. I think that's
amazing. You was talking about locusts in baby England which I well hey I don't remember it
because well you weren't there. I hope. I'm not quite that old yet. Are you sure? I didn't know anything about that
and I should imagine they would have gone past the south anyway. Yeah oh yeah I know it did mention
UK it did mention London so I'm yeah I'm thinking that that's probably where they got to. I don't
know. It's always down south. We never get the good stuff. To me that would be free food. I've been
out there with the net collecting them. Marvelous to me. Well and I you know when I was growing up here
we had I mean we had grasshoppers, crickets, locusts the whole nine. So you know and it's
still true now. Like I walk through my front yard now and you know especially in like spring and summer
there's plenty of grasshoppers. They will jump you know so it's kind of nice to have that and
of course like I said we get katydids and cicadas a lot of the time. I think at least once a year
I will see a katydid. It'll just come and hang out you know or I'll see it. I think they like my
I think they like the walls of my house because if they're white so that bright color is like tend
to attract them. But yeah I don't know. I don't know what it is. I guess I'm just lucky like that.
Well probably going to get some katydids. It's a shame we did this now because I was thinking
about getting some anyway. No. Have you seen the giant ones? Yeah they're amazing. We don't get them
that big here. Yeah absolutely enormous. I think they're Peruvian I mean. I believe so yeah because
the Amazon I mean everything is bigger than Amazon for sure. Like they're just everything is huge
there. Well I'm sure there's plenty of them we don't know about but yeah yeah. Then those katydids
now are doing their rounds in the UK at the moment in the bookseat. Oh wow. Whereas people are all
getting katydids so or katydids. I've never known which one it is. Yeah I don't either.
It's spelled like it should be pronounced katydid. Yeah I think so. I think so but a lot of people
call it katydids so I'm confused. I think it's an American thing. I don't know. No I would call them
katydids. I would call them katydids but I just hear it a lot katydids so I'll have to look that up to be
honest. I'll have to look it up and see if it's Latin or Greek and then we can figure out whether
it's Katie or Katie. Yeah we'll have to do that for sure and let me know later on.
And then we can correct ourselves from here on out. One of the things you did
do which surprised me because I was waiting for you to slip up. Oh. You say orthoptera correctly.
Orthoptera yeah. Because most people say orthoptera.
And I thought she's got to say orthoptera. She's definitely got to say orthoptera.
As is American and it's just a weird word.
And I thought yeah you're going to say it incorrectly. Like everybody else says it incorrectly and I was like
it's orthoptera because you got it right. Ortho Greek for straight.
Thera for wings. So it's like yeah. I surprised you huh. Absolutely.
I was in a position where I had nothing to complain about.
Did you hear that guys? You didn't have it. All these people was pronouncing things wrong like
orthoptera and orthopedotera. And that's the other one that does it. Where people
pronounce the P in Thera. Yeah right right. No but it's like pterodactyl. You know the P is silent.
I wish mine wasn't three at the moment.
You know it's funny because when I was in high school I actually took
Latin which I mean as you know is a dead language. Nobody speaks it anymore.
But a lot of like medical terms and whatnot use Latin because it's pretty much the root words for
anything and everything in the medical world right. And I took I actually took it for
I believe four years. No I took it for three years. And you know I used to laugh at myself like oh
man I don't know why I'm even taking this class. Like I don't know if I'm ever going to use it.
All this stuff. And here I am now you know learning all this about arthropods and
invertebrates. And I'm like oh man that Latin really paid off.
Because I'm sorry we started learning Latin and Greek.
At school when I was five or six. Oh wow. It was just one then you know it was that sort of time
and that sort of school where they would insist that you learn where English words came from.
Because a lot of English words are Latin. You know they're based in Latin. So they insisted on
like if we got taught a new word they'd tell us the Latin where it came from or the Greek.
Which helps so much now. Yeah. The pronunciations etc for a lot of the books.
Yeah me too. I always thought the same but what a waste of absolute time.
And it really wasn't. It really wasn't. Because not only that you can spot when somebody's using
a word incorrectly even if you've never heard the word as long as you know where it's come from.
Because you can generally figure out where it's come from. Yeah you can just pick it right up.
Yeah. I also like to give credit to that Latin class for my ability to be able to like hear a
different language and kind of have a general idea as to what is being said. I know that that sounds
strange but... No it doesn't. I hear Lily. I hear Lily and I know she's the linguist over here.
I did the same. I didn't use to be able to do it but now I can actually watch a Spanish film.
I know what's going on. You know I can put together the words just because of the Latin.
So it really makes a massive difference. Learning Latin is a really big step
to knowing a lot of other languages because all our languages are based on Latin.
Absolutely. It's just so deeply ingrained in a lot of languages. I mean I know it's
definitely deeply ingrained in English, a little bit of Spanish, some French,
and they're all kind of interconnected anyway so it's kind of you know it's pretty wild.
It is. I think we went off topic.
Just a little but you know I feel that the language is actually pretty important for
invertebrates so maybe that's a topic for another day.
I think that is a fantastic idea and I know a few people would like that very much.
Yeah maybe we should do a vote. Do a poll on community. Yeah absolutely. I think that
there's quite a few people out there who strip up on saying the Latin or they feel silly
saying the Latin because they're going to be a bit of a pain in the ass. I think that's
pronounced it wrong. Yeah. Because I found that most people don't know where the syllables are
in Latin. Right. Because they're not obvious. Like you see a normal English word and we see
the syllables we go oh yeah yeah yeah and we can learn how to say it. Whereas in Latin you look at
it it's just a jumble of letters. Right. Once you can identify like sections of it you can actually
say it correctly like auto and terror. Once you know those two you can take them apart and say
them separately. You just put them together and say them and that's it's it's done. So yeah I think
you should do that. So I'm going to shut up now about Latin. Well that's Greek. And then we'll go
And Eden Inver says I'm currently trying to learn my Latin. So hey there you go. Like you
know you're you're among friends. We um a mo a mas a mat. That is all the Latin I know and it's
all the Latin I want. That was my Latin teacher was amazing and I've learned quite a bit. But now
I mean I can't speak it but I like the basic stuff is still in in there. And like you said it just
it really really does help to be able to understand like the Latin words and like the scientific terms
for a lot of things. So all right let's get back on topic. We're going to talk about cicadas now
because I found all kinds of really cool actual like folklore about cicadas.
And so cicadas are interesting because the males produce the loud noises that you hear by
vibrating the membranes called timbals and they're near the base of their abdomen. Females will lay
eggs in the woody plant tissues and then they will drop from like the plant or whatever when the eggs
hatch and then nymphs will burrow and suck juices from the roots of perennial plants. There are
over 3,000 species known of cicadas and they actually are a sub classification known as
cicadidae. Cicadidae maybe. There it is there it is. Okay they occur in deserts grasslands forests.
They appear pretty much yearly with the periodic or I'm sorry but they also will appear like
periodic and then there's also the best known cicada for this which is the 17 year cicada.
Maggius cicada and they have been used in folk medicines, religious symbols and monetary symbols.
So once upon a time they used cicada songs or the sounds that they made in forecasting the weather.
So it's pretty fascinating and this is where we get into the folklore of cicadas.
But first we can talk a little bit about cicadas and kind of their song and
like all about that and yeah what do you think of cicadas? Do you like them? Do you like their
song? Because I know for me it's hard for me to like go to sleep anywhere where there aren't
crickets or cicadas or some kind of repetitive noise and that's just because you know growing
up here in Colorado we had plenty of them like they just the noise right. So if I go somewhere
where there isn't that noise it's really hard for me to sleep. Do you find that? Yeah.
I've got these guys who serenade me every night. Oh wonderful. Repetitive noise. I'm married so
I'm in trouble now. She's just giving me a dirty look. She's watching. I mean yeah I'm bent and she
gave me a dirty look on that one. So anyway but yeah I love the sound of the cicada.
I love the sound of the crickets. I absolutely love it. It helps me sleep.
Yeah. It did. In India I used to love that because it was a complete different sound
than what we get here. Yeah. So relaxing and calming. Cicadas. All I've heard of cicadas is
buzzing because as I told you before the podcast the first time I came across cicadas was in Greece
and it was just hitting my patio windows because the lights was on and it was night time and I was
having a drink outside. It was just like I don't know. I didn't have an opinion on it. I was quite
afraid of it at first because they aren't really intimidating. First time I've seen one and it's
there on the floor and there's loads of them. They're buzzing and making all sorts of noise.
Do I pick one up? Can it bite me? Plus the fact I may have had one or two so I didn't really
pick one up. It didn't really help with my idea of eating them. Yeah. I can do without cicadas.
I really like cicadas because I actually spent a couple of years in Okinawa. So the cicadas there
are incredibly loud. They are everywhere. And the ones there I believe spend seven years underground
in their nymph stage. So they grow while they're underground and then when they emerge they only
live for about a month or two and that's when they do their mating and whatnot and then they
mate their eggs and so on and so forth. But the noise from them was just constant and they were
massive. I mean they were about the size of golf balls. And it's weird because I didn't know that
they were classified in with crickets and grasshoppers. I thought they were a type of beetle.
But no, I was so wrong about that. And they're quite beautiful actually. If you've ever seen one
they're good size and I think they are kind of territorial and so in Okinawa they would dive
bomb us and we had this little paddy wagon that we had to drive around and patrol in an area.
And I can remember people crashing that little paddy wagon like so many times because a cicada
flew into the window and you know bonked him in the head or whatever. And they are really intimidating
if not just for that noise but that size. And so they're just a really intimidating creature.
But it's really fascinating that they burrow and then they only live for like a month or so.
And that's when they're the noisiest. So it's just wild. Can you imagine that's your life?
Like seven years underground and then one day you emerge and you're like an old man ready to die.
Oh, I felt like we were in bed last night.
I find it fascinating. A lot of the insect world is just amazing.
It's wild.
Like the dragonfly for instance the larva can spend several years in the water.
Right.
And then in terms of dragonfly, five minutes later it's brown bread again.
So you know it's amazing. They must know that once they come out of there it's game over.
That it's like I've got to find something to make with and then that's it.
Right. I mean their instincts must be really, really strong. Just really, really strong.
I mean it's fascinating. So with that being said that's a really great segue for
folklore. So that instinct or that ancient wisdom. Right.
So in the folklore cicadas have been known to kind of epitomize reincarnation.
So about 40 million years is the earliest form. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know what 40 million years was.
But maybe that's like their oldest. Maybe that's the oldest like record of them in the fossil.
The oldest identifiable fossil of a cicada I think.
Yeah. So I'm thinking that's what I wrote down and I apologize.
But um.
And fossil what? Go on carry on.
No worries. So the earliest form was in China and they would actually make stone carvings out of jade.
Of cicadas and they believed that because the cicadas had that like kind of that
reincarnating or that they epitomized you know eternal life essentially or rebirth.
They would place the jade cicada on the tongue of a deceased person.
And that actually would allow for them that the deceased would would emerge and achieve their
permanent immortality. So they imagined that that the cicada helps them cross into that immortality.
But I found a lot. I found another really beautiful story from the Hopi
indigenous people here in the states.
The Indians yeah.
Yeah the Hopi. Yeah. So they actually in the northern Arizona their mythology
indicates that they emerged from the Grand Canyon right. And some sources say that they
were led by two cicadas that played flutes which kind of makes sense because they do make that
noise right. But they basically the cicadas would heal their bodies as they emerged from the
Grand Canyon because the entrance to the fourth world was guarded by eagles that shot arrows at
them. So the cicadas singing with their flutes would heal their bodies. So that's another really
fascinating like kind of legend or folklore. I feel like you know.
I don't know why but I have no idea why. No not a clue. But in that story I think I've heard that
in a movie somewhere. It's possible. It's possible because the Hopi tribe is a really popular tribe
because they're actually there's not a lot not a ton known about them. So the more we learn about
them the more it kind of spreads out and people get really excited about it. So that doesn't
surprise me. Or a documentary. Yeah right. Yeah yeah. I've watched a lot of those.
Oh I love them. I love them. I live in. There is a good chance of her being there but I actually
knew that story. Pretty much worth the words of what you were saying. I was like oh god yeah.
You're like click click click. Yeah I know nothing of the folklore. I know the Chinese
quite liked them. But that one yeah I knew. So I was quite pleased about that. Yeah.
Well cool. Please tell me. Yeah I'm glad to I'm glad to hear that that that made you happy.
I also found a really cool actually a story about Eos from ancient Greek. And Eos is the goddess of
the dawn. And she had a lover named Titanus. Titanus. It it's spelled Tythonus but it's Titanus.
And he was he lived in Troy and he was human. But she loved him. This was her this was her duke you
know. And Eos asked Zeus to grant Titanus immortality. But she forgot to ask Zeus for
his eternal youth as well. So essentially she doomed Titanus to remain alive but to grow old
that like so old that he sank into a toothless decrepitude. And eventually he was praying for
death. Oh quit Simon you are not. So Eos understood that the gods never retracted their gifts once they
gave a gift. They never took it back. But not knowing what else to do she locked Titanus away
and turned him into an ever complaining cicada. And that's pretty much the end of the story. I
don't know if there's like a moral or something that we can learn from it. But I've I thought
that one was pretty fascinating. I didn't say ever complaining. It's the noise isn't it. The noise
yeah. Yeah just the rain. Yeah yeah yeah. The noise comes from. It's Titanus. It's
Titanus complaining. Yeah about growing so old. I don't know. That's why I'm going to go off.
It's just devastating. I know growing old is such a pain. But yeah that's pretty interesting that
cicadas are related to immortal life and rebirth and that kind of thing. But it it also really
makes sense because exactly how they behave. You know like spending years and years underground
and then emerging in their adult form. Like it just makes makes total sense that that people
would see them as rebirth. This is very similar to Hedgehog mythology. Oh. Where as you just said
they spend the time underground, come out, reincarnation etc. When there's an ancient
Egyptian mythology about hedgehogs. Okay. When they're hibernates they saw the hedgehogs as
being reincarnated because they've vanished for months at a time and then just all reappeared at
the same time. So it's a similar thing. It was that was their idea of reincarnation. They said
oh they've got this sus they're reincarnating. Wow. That's their proof for it existing. Being a
thing. So cicadas going underground for as long as they do is a real you know it must have been
amazing when you know back in the day when you didn't know what was going on. Right. Just all
these these large you know singing bugs emerging from the ground. I mean that must have been
quite a sight. Oh at the same time. Yeah. Right. Well that and the yeah that's amazing. I mean it's
it's just incredible. I agree. But locusts also like the swarming that they do. I mean
it's been happening for hundreds of thousands probably even you know millions of years as long
as they've been here on earth. You know but it's well documented in human history that that the
swarms of locusts will you know affect us you know and that that hive mind essentially is kind of
fascinating to us as well. Like we always that's a one of the reasons that we're studying ants as to
to their near neurons and that synopsis that they go through because we're trying to figure out how
does the hive mind happen. How does this you know how do they just know how what to do when to do
it. You know same with bees like you know once once they get in the hive how do they know that
they need more pollen to feed the larvae. How do they know that you know. So we're we're definitely
researching that and I think that is quite a fascinating thing about insects that hive mind
essentially that they just you know there must be something that can be doing. That's the scary part
you know. When you go out and do something you have two of them doing the same thing going oh
you're here. No no it's my job. They just don't know shut up. What what job. They don't know why
sometimes they just start singing and then they'll go quiet. But yeah they all seem to know what
they're doing now. They're all doing different things. We see them just like the bee doing these
stuff. But you know each bee is doing different bee stuff. It's doing certain things. You've got
certain jobs. Ants probably more so as far as more jobs are concerned. You know loads and loads of
little things you've got to do and you've got casts and you know workers and majors and medias
and all that sort of thing. So ants are quite fascinating in that respect. Absolutely. I think
we have no idea what's going on. We don't know how they know or why they know. Let's be honest
we don't know why birds can fly in formation and then suddenly change. Right. That's pretty
and so can mongus. They do the same thing. They're just like all right we're left now.
Which is right by the way. I just did left. It makes me can't remember. I forget that. But yeah
we're going right now and then they all go right and go like yeah food's over here. Right. Like
that one turns and they all do. It's like and but there's no specific leader of the pack.
You know whereas like in wolves you've got a pack with mammals. Right. And you've got one clear
leader. Right. It's the decision. So you know it's the alpha. Where there's been insects etc.
There's no alpha. There's no alpha. They're all they're all just yeah. And the tiny tiny tiny
gondola that they've got as a brain. It was how to get so much information in there and know what
to do when to do it. It's amazing. It really is. I agree. It's pretty fascinating. I mean even
even just being hit being able to observe it you know in your everyday life and stuff. It's
really something to admire. It would be nice if researchers bothered looking at things like that
instead of a hundred different ways how to kill them. Yeah right. Because you might get put them
off. Yeah. We don't know what he's all with something. They can go another direction whatever
you know. But now we'll kill them because that's how it's all related. Unfortunately. And you know
like they do they serve a purpose. They absolutely serve a purpose. Every single
invertebrate every single you know insect that you find in the world it has a purpose. Even the
mosquitoes which I still I still would like to know what on earth their purpose is. But
they serve one. Certainly. To keep the humans down. Is that what it is just to spread the malaria. Yes.
To keep the humans down. It's well shucks. We're the problem. Well that we know. Yeah.
I'm all for mosquitoes. Keep them going. We need some more. That's great. We don't have them so it's great.
I'm really you know I'm actually really lucky because I think I and I like to think that it's
my blood type but I don't get bit as much as other people do by mosquitoes and stuff. So
lucky. Oh yep see Eden. Eden inverts agrees with you that mosquitoes purpose is to annoy the humans.
So. Well it's to keep the human population in check. Yeah. But everything has something to keep it in check.
Yeah. Yeah. If you take away a predator. It will just go wild. It will go mad then. It's
explode the population. Yeah. That is what we've done. That's why humans are growing as fast as we
are. Because we've taken away our predators. Our problems. And on top of that we've added medicine
and all the other things that keep us alive even longer. Right. You know we've got nothing to kill
us off and keep us in check. Yeah. We'll kill everything else off. Well I don't know though
because I mean I've been seeing these videos of people and you know tourists that go to like
Yellowstone and they're getting mauled by the bison out there in the buffalo because you know
they're they're just getting too close to these massive creatures and they think oh they're just
so big and wooly and they can't hurt me or whatever. They get close enough and that thing is like I've
got horns and I know how to use them. Well Bites are the biggest killer aren't they in Africa.
Yeah. They kill more people in Africa than anything else. And they've got you know you've got
crocodiles. You've got sure tigers but they're not there lions and stuff. And yet cows kill more people.
The wildebeest. So yeah basically they just count. And I've also been told that hippos,
hippopotamus they have they have the strongest bite force of any creature. Is it any creature
on earth? I don't know if that's. No it's not. I think it's um
um manel isn't it. Is it? Yeah because uh. Oh it's a jaguar.
I'm trying to think what has the stronger bite force in there.
I'm pretty sure jaguars have a major bite force like their bite force is. Yeah
jackdivers are one of them. They have a massive massive bite force. But hippos are killing more
people than sharks do every year. So oh yeah yeah. It's not because they're biting them. It's because
they're flattening them. Yeah. You know what I mean. So they're fighting them. They still
kill people. They just. Well yeah I mean they do. You know this huge what how much do they weigh? At
least a ton. This huge animal coming at you at like 30 miles an hour. I mean that's no that's
like a car crash. That's like a semi crash you know. Well cats don't weigh a ton do they? So you've got
something you know probably weighing twice as much as a car. Yeah exactly. Totally. Absolutely.
We didn't just go on a tangent did we again? Yes all the fun ways that animals can kill people.
Let's let's just do that. Okay so actually no let's uh that's pretty much all I've got
um about the orthoptera. Again really really really cool orthoptera. What did I say it wrong again?
No I'm saying right. Oh yeah okay sorry that was fun. Orthoptera. Yeah but yeah um so let's
let's close this out maybe uh next oh that would be an awesome show is what Eden Invert says and
okay well then hey that's another another topic that I'm writing down. We're gonna schedule it out.
Okay I have no idea what it's put because I can't see the screen. Okay. And it's not because of these
it's because it's all the way over there. Right you'd have to look but yeah no Eden Invert says
that would be a fun and awesome show and I'm pretty sure that Eden is talking about all the
ways that people can be killed by animals. Humans yes. What a wonderful show that would be.
Wonderful yeah I hope for that yeah. Yeah I'm good with that um but yeah okay let's do our
shameless plug. So Simon what do you got going on this week? Anything new? Uh yeah I've started
doing videos again because I had the time that was so busy before Christmas and also uh I've not been
too good and so I pretty much stopped doing them back from the old show but I've started doing
again this week and I'm gonna carry on that so obviously Mantis Garden, YouTube that's it yeah
and also is just reading and going mad but I would like to if I can drop in the fact that there's a
show on the uh 11th or is it the 10th of February I've got a quick look. Oh yeah I've got that.
It's in Sheffield in the UK and it is called the Great Ant Exhibition. It's not just ants it's all
sorts of inverts but ants are it's put on by a company that deals in ants so it's the Great Ant
Exhibition and I'll have tables there so if you want to buy Mantis or whatever else I'm
gonna take with me I don't know yet uh yeah I'll be there and you can uh say hi and uh also
buy stuff. Yeah no that's wonderful how fun you'll have to tell me all about it because uh
I'm actually considering uh setting up a table at like expo nearby me um although I won't I
probably won't be selling anything because I don't have anything to sell I'll just be educating.
Just good if not better. Yes you know promoting our show. Yeah I think that yeah yeah absolutely.
I'm gonna listen because it looks embarrassing on YouTube.
I there's not many people watch on YouTube but people listen uh and you know. Oh yeah yeah people
are listening all over the world we even have a listener in uh Jakarta so that's that's really
really cool shout out to Jakarta dude thanks for listening um yeah like our podcast is doing pretty
well for sure. I can't even about say hi so. Yeah um okay so for my shameless plug I you know I had
a short that I just I haven't been able to get the the voiceover done for it but I am going to get
that done real soon um but it's going to be a short little video about how I clean my enclosures to
reuse them so when I'm you know if when I move a tarantula into a bigger enclosure or you know like
a mantis or whatever um then I clean the old one um so I've made a little short to kind of show you
how to do that and then the second plug that I have is actually a really it's a local business
they're they're pretty small but they make these cute little clay mushroom thingies um and they are
called mixed up creations um I love these guys they've been around for close to 30 some odd years
um and these these necklaces are actually a lot of them are uh black light active and they glow in
the dark which makes them really cute and it's a small business so you're you're definitely
supporting uh local Colorado Denver so if you happen to be in the Denver area just just visiting
definitely check out mixed up creations they're on east colfex um just just a cool little shop
they also have uh smoking paraphernalia so there's there's some of that so it's a little it's you know
21 and over but you can definitely go in there they've got cool t-shirts and of course like that
necklace I'm not sponsored by them I just I just absolutely love them I've loved their necklaces
for a long time so um and Lily says she loves that they do also have an online store and I'm
pretty sure that they will ship internationally I think I'm gonna have to get back to you guys on
that one I don't know but uh check out their online store I believe it's mixedupcreations.com
yep mixed up creations but it's spelled m-y-x-e-d so make sure you get that mixed up
but they're really cool it's a great store so you'll be supporting a good cause and
that's all I've got yeah just stay tuned next week what do you think should we do
we do dragonflies or what kind of topic are you thinking well I'll be your determinant
for dragonflies um I'm not letting the dragonflies go you know I yeah I'll do dragonflies okay
I'm good with that because you're not going to shut off the barrier until we do it so
so you're right you're absolutely I'm stuck on it okay dragonflies
yeah that'll be it'll be a fun show I'm sure and you know yeah it'll be fun I'll I'll I'll do my
you know usual research that I do if I can find some folklore on dragonflies I will also include
that like I usually do I'm in the video yes I know I know I love your video it was so beautiful and
I was so mad when when we couldn't correspond it I was just okay but we won't go there I'll
be sharing the video and annoying people with dragonflies until they're forced to watch yes
yes but otherwise um yeah so dragonflies next week look forward to that and check out Mantis
Garden check out tarantula otherwise thank you guys so much for watching thank you to everybody
who's listening um we'll see you uh next week see you later