Arthro-Pod Episode 30: Get to Know the Brown Recluse

Hi there bug lovers! On today's show Mike and Jonathan are talking all about the infamous brown recluse! While this eight-legged animal may inspire fear in the heart of many, perhaps it is just misunderstood? Tune in to learn about where the brown recluse lives, what may actually be responsible for those gross pictures you see online, and how to identify if you have a brown recluse or not!

Helpful size comparison of brown recluse to an American quarter (Jim Kalisch; UNL Entomology)

Here are our show notes with some helpful quotations pulled by Mike:

"From the beginning, the diagnosis of brown recluse spider bite was based on supposition much more than fact"
http://www.labmed.theclinics.com/article/S0272-2712(06)00015-1/abstract

"2,055 brown recluse spiders...were collected...in a home in Lenexa, KS. Additional collections from more typically infested homes in Missouri and Oklahoma in 2001 yielded 45 and 30 brown recluse spiders, respectively. Despite these infestations, no envenomations of the inhabitants of these three homes occurred. Considering the levels of infestations with no bites in the homes presented here, nonendemic areas in the United States, which typically lack recluse spider populations and have had zero to few verified specimens of the spider, do not have sufficient numbers of brown recluse spiders to make envenomation a likely scenario."

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0022-2585-39.6.948

"Brown recluse spiders are not found in Canada. Hobo spiders have not been reliably implicated in  dermonecrosis. Worldwide, spider-bite envenomation is an unlikely cause of dermonecrosis."

http://www.cfp.ca/content/cfp/50/8/1098.full.pdf

"In total, 1,773 arachnids [were submitted] from 49 states. Participants from states at least half within the known brown recluse distribution submitted Loxosceles spiders 32–89% of the time. From 25 of 29 states completely or almost completely outside of the range of Loxosceles spiders, no recluse spiders were submitted."

https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/42/4/512/910901/Arachnids-Submitted-as-Suspected-Brown-Recluse

"The diagnosis of brown recluse spider bite is overused for dermonecrotic wounds of uncertain etiology"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196064402259776

"The medical community from non-endemic Loxosceles areas often makes loxoscelism diagnoses solely on the basis of dermonecrotic lesions where Loxosceles spiders are rare or non-existent."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041010103001739

"Among both physicians and the general public, the perceived threat of spider bites far exceeds the actual risk. The misdiagnosis of spider bites is given to a wide spectrum of dermatologic conditions, some of which are far more dangerous than a spider bite."

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra041184

The six eyes that help to ID a brown recluse (Jim Kalisch; UNL Entomology)

Questions? Comments? 

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This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Arthro-Pod Episode 16: Arctic Arachnology with Dr. Chris Buddle

Greetings bug lovers! Today we are diving into arachnology with special guest Dr. Chris Buddle of McGill University. Tune in to learn about the spiders that live in the arctic and also a bit about finding happiness in academia!

Arthro-Pod Episode 6: The ESA Files!

Hello everyone and welcome to our 6th episode! This episode was recorded at the Entomological Society of America's national meeting and features 10 interviews with entomologists from around the country. Tune in if you want to know more about the exciting advances in bug research and education! 

The Insects and Arachnids of College Sports

As fall begins to take a hold of the year, many folks turn to college football for some seasonal entertainment. I personally am a big fan, but I may actually be a bigger fan of the mascots. Ever since I saw Purdue Pete beat up Bucky Badger at the 1997 Purdue-Wisconsin tilt I have had an interest in memorizing the mascots of our nation's institutes of higher learning. I do have my favorites (don't you go changing Bethany College or Washburn University), but of course as an entomologist I am particularly interested in the buggy ones.

So today, I present unto you a list of all the different insect and arachnid themed mascots I could find. The general trend seems to favor insects that can sting you and inject you with venom. You know, for the kids. There is a surprising lack of representatives from the orders of Lepidoptera and Hemiptera. I urge any school seeking a new mascot to consider maybe something along the lines of say... the Mighty Moths?

Bees:

Bees of course represent teamwork and have a fierce reputation thanks to their potent stingers. Therefore it's a little surprising that only three schools have chosen this noble insect as their heraldic symbol. Of the three, I have to say I am partial to the University of Baltimore's Super Bee. What can I say, I like comfy looking sweaters. 

Boll weevils:

The biggest surprise to me when compiling this list was that the cotton boll weevil is the chosen symbol for not one, but two different universities. This choice is distinct as it is the only herbivorous insect utilized as a mascot and for the fact that the boll weevil was once the bane of the cotton producing South. Of the two representatives, I have to say I like the Enterprise version better for the accurate placement of the antennae. Although, its dead eyes do haunt my dreams now. 

Fire ants:

I am surprised at the dearth of ants on the list of insectoid mascot representatives. Known for industriousness and teamwork, one would assume coaches would love for their players to be like ants. But, only the University of South Carolina-Sumter has chosen the noble ant to represent their athletics. They even took it a step further and picked the fire ants, some of the orneriest stinging insects in the US. I think as a move in psychological warfare the Fire Ants' main rivals should change their mascot name to the Phorid Flies

Hornets:

Coming in at second place in terms of number of representatives, we have the hornets. Hornet is a bit of a nebulous term as it could mean a whole host of different large, sting-y, social wasps. I would imagine most of these schools are referring to the European hornet, the most common hornet in the States. Of note in the hornet group is Emporia State University's mascot "Corky". who is the brain child of Paul Edwards, a former Disney Studios animator. 

Scorpions:

Admittedly, this one is a bit of a cheat. The University of Texas at Brownsville was formerly known as the scorpions but they have since changed their mascot to the Ocelots. In my humble opinion, some feline with a weird name that has too many vowels just doesn't compare to the sheer metal awesomeness of having a scorpion as a mascot. 

Spiders:

Next, the University of Richmond Spiders. They are currently the only college sports team named after spiders and the arachnid group as a whole. They are pretty proud of their eight legged emblem, which is surprising given that spiders seem to be universally hated.

Stingers:

Concordia University is a school in the great country of Canada. While their chosen icon appears to be a yellow jacket, I like the choice here to dispense with formality and just name your teams after the scariest part of the insect. Plus, check our those biceps! Although, he does seem to have forgotten leg day at the gym since his other ambulatory organs appear to be missing. 

Wasps:

In what I can only describe as the letdown of the year, Emory & Henry College's Wasps are represented by an actual insect rather than just a couple of White Anglo Saxon Protestants standing around on the sidelines. 

Yellow jackets:

Finally we come to our final and most popular hexapod mascot, the yellow jacket. These ferocious stinging insects are often the bane of our existence at this time of year. Since they are so aggressive and colorful, it's easy to see why they have been a popular choice for universities to pick. The most famous yellow jacket in America is probably Georgia Tech's favorite son, Buzz.

I feel it would be remiss not to point out some entomological mistakes among these insect mascots. First, insects have six legs, not two well muscled arms. Second, they definitely don't have teeth that they can grit in a most menacing fashion. Finally, I have seen a lot of wasps in my time and none of them have ever had white dinner gloves on.  

With that, let's end by handing out some awards. 

Best overall presentation: The Richmond Spiders. Scientifically accurate, cool color scheme, plus they have this thing roaming the sidelines:

Why would you make his eyes glow red?!

Arachnophobia must be an epidemic in Richmond, VA. 

Most Scientifically Accurate: Alabama State Hornets. Six legs, four wings, two antennae and eyes and even mostly right colors. Honestly, they didn't have a lot of competition. 

Award for Adorableness: The Baltimore Super Bee. Again, just look at that sweater.