Trouble With Tickle Toes

This is me on Saturday at Missoula's new insectarium holding Tickle Toes, the tarantula. This nice moment occurred before she got a little overwhelmed by a room full of kiddos and kicked off some urticating hairs from her abdomen. First my hands got tingly.  Then itchy. Today they're still just a little swollen and achy. Yeah, not super fun, but what an impressive defense!!

Tarantula Hairs

If you've ever seen a tarantula, then you know they're hairy spiders. I think that's part of what freaks people out so much. But do you know why they're so hairy??

First off, let's get technical. Tarantula "hair", just like the "hair" on bumble bees and any other arthropod isn't really hair.  Only mammals have true hair. On insects and spiders it's more correct to say "hair-like setae", "bristles", "scales", or "pile". But, for simplicity's sake (and because I don't tend to be super-technical), today I'm going to just say "hair". 

Tarantulas have three basic types of hairs:

Sensory hairs-- Most of the hairs on a tarantula are sensory. Since this arachnid's eyesight is incredibly poor, it needs to have other ways to sense the environment for hunting, defense, mating, and other activities. The body hairs are extremely sensitive to slight substrate or air vibrations (mechanoreceptors) and all the "chemicals" in the environment (taste receptors). Yeah, tarantulas "taste" all over their bodies because of those hairs! 

Scopulae-- These are tufts of hair covered by smaller hairs on the ends of a spider's legs/feet. These hairs are like super-duper grippers allowing some spiders to climb up walls or other structures. If you hold a spider like a tarantula you can feel the velcro-like scopulae-- its feet feel just a bit sticky. I think it is important for people to know that there are many many spiders that don't have scopulae and can't climb vertical surfaces. In addition, any spider that builds a web can barely walk on a surface other than the web (these spiders appear a bit wobbly like someone who's had a bit too much to drink!). So if you see a spider on the floor of your bedroom, don't freak out.  It most likely doesn't have scopulae and can't climb up into your bed (and if it managed to, you should be more impressed than afraid!). 

Urticating Hairs-- These are the ones I got a taste of yesterday. "Urticating" comes from the Latin word urtica, which means "nettle." They are barbed bristles that can be flicked off the tarantula's abdomen with the back legs. Imbedded in the skin or eyes of a potential predator, these bristles can cause some significant irritation which usually allows the spider to escape. For humans, they cause redness & itching/irritation to the skin, but could be much more serious if they get into an eye or if the human has an allergic reaction. Urticating hairs are also used by tarantulas to mark territory, so if you have a pet tarantula, gloves are a good idea when cleaning out the cage. 

--

"The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web."

-Edwin Way Teale

The Allure of Spiders

Check out this Pecha Kucha talk that my friend Laurie did!
(I helped her write what she was going to say... but am not brave enough to go up on that stage!)

Measuring the Earth...

Have you ever seen an inchworm?  They come in all sorts of colors and sizes.  Some are incredibly cryptic—wanting you to believe that they are part of that leaf or stem or twig.  These little guys are moth larvae and belong to the family Geometridae, which means “earth measurer” (I think that name is awesome).The Geometrids are a large moth family (over 35,000 species have been described). 

An inchworm scoots along in that characteristic way because it has the six normal insect legs near the front of its body and two to three pairs of prolegs near the back of its body.  To move, it first grabs the substrate with the true legs (in the front) while pulling the back of its body forward.  Then it grabs the substrate with the prolegs (in the back) while extending the front of the body forward.  It’s pretty neat to watch.  Inchworms also have a survival strategy of standing erect and very very still when disturbed—it works because they can easily be mistaken for a twig or piece of leaf.

Despite the cuteness of the little inchworms, the adult Geometer moths are sort of boring and ugly although some do have an intricate wavy pattern across the four pairs of wings.   Like many moths that fly at night, they have tympanal organs that help them hear (and hopefully avoid) ecolocating bats that are trying to eat them.

---

"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar."

-Bradley Millar

Bees!

I've discovered that one of my favorite things is sitting in the forest on a mountain on a sunny afternoon.  I love the smell of pine forests (that's been true for awhile), but lately I can't get enough of listening to and watching the activity of the bumble bees as they work their way from little flower to little flower... the sound of their industrious buzzing helps me notice the tiniest flowers that I never would have paid attention to.  Warm sun, pine smell, the hum of bees = pure contentment.

It was not until fairly recently that my knowledge of bees was at about the same level as most everyone else that I meet:
"Isn't a bee just a bee?"
"Aren't all bees honey bees?"
"Giant bumbling bee!  Watch out! It's going to sting!"

Here's what I've learned.  A bee is not just a bee.  There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world and over 3,500 species in the U.S.  The honey bees in the U.S. are just one species and they are not native to North America, they were brought from Europe for their honey-making and pollination abilities.  In the world there are 250 species of bumble bees.  Only 46 have been identified in North America.

I do not study honey bees.  They're definitely interesting and important to agriculture in the U.S., but that's not what I do.  Are honey bees in danger?  Yeah, probably, because we overuse them, stress them out with endless road trips, take away their habitat and food, and harm them with chemicals and pathogens.  This, however, is a topic for another day.

I do study bumble bees and other native bees.  Most of these are solitary ground or cavity dwellers. Many times when you see bees, you probably don't even realize that you're seeing a bee! Each group has a fascinating way of life and natural history that I'll share at another time.  What you should know though is that none of these native bees are out to get you.  Yes, the females can sting.  But this is a defense mechanism, not a weapon for chasing and attacking humans.  So if you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you. Stings happen when you accidentally scare or squish a bee or threaten a nest.  Honey bees are more likely to sting (because they are social bees and are protecting the hive) and many times the aggressive "bees" that people are afraid of are actually wasps.   Please try to stop being afraid of bees!

Are native bees in danger?  Maybe.  That's a much harder question to answer because we don't even know which bees live where and what their current numbers are.  Tiny solitary bees are way tougher to study than honey bees that are raised by humans in hives...  Studies have shown that populations and ranges of many native bees, including bumble bees, actually are declining.  However, much more information is needed.  And that's part of why I'm working on the Bumble Bees of Montana Project.  :-)

-----
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” 
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine