Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology
Speaker 1: and evolutionary biology, and I love bugs. From the slithery
Speaker 1: and wiggily to the creepy and crawley to the busy
Speaker 1: and buzzy. Bugs are some of the most populous and
Speaker 1: diverse animals on the planet, with a fascinating range of behaviors.
Speaker 1: I think that bugs are often overlooked. Everybody loves a cute,
Speaker 1: cuddly panda, but an adorable jumping spider who will hug
Speaker 1: it's eight fuzzy arms. So today let's show some bugs
Speaker 1: some love. As I tell you about some of my
Speaker 1: favorite invertebrate mates. Mates isn't friends, I'm not. This is
Speaker 1: platonic bug love. As humans, our relationship with warmy, squirmy
Speaker 1: creatures has been complex. They're creepy and slimy, but sometimes useful.
Speaker 1: We used to use leeches in medical contexts, used in
Speaker 1: blood litting, because back then doctors sometimes thought that you
Speaker 1: just had too much blood floating around in you and
Speaker 1: that was an imbalance of your humors and you gotta,
Speaker 1: you know, gotta let out some blood. Sometimes today, Leeches
Speaker 1: are still sometimes used in medicine. The herodo medicanalys a K,
Speaker 1: the European medical leech, can be used to help reattach fingers.
Speaker 1: It helps drain the reattached digits of stagnating blood and
Speaker 1: promotes the flow of new blood into the finger. Maggots,
Speaker 1: as gross as it sounds, can also be used in medicine.
Speaker 1: Medical maggots are used to debride necrotic tissue. That's polite
Speaker 1: medical speech for saying they'll munch on your dead skin.
Speaker 1: This can help clean wounds and keep them from getting infected. Obviously,
Speaker 1: don't go pouring leeches or maggots on yourself, because I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure doctors are better at selecting where and when
Speaker 1: to put worms on your body. Earthworms, another wiggly wonder,
Speaker 1: helped create fertile soil by processing large chunks of organic
Speaker 1: matter into human Not the delicious chickpe dip, but that
Speaker 1: dark brown, nearly black soil that is rich and nutritious
Speaker 1: for plants to grow. Even parasitic worms can sometimes be
Speaker 1: heroes in disguise. Certain types of parasitic worms can protect
Speaker 1: the developing babies of pregnant routes from developing brain inflammation.
Speaker 1: So see, you guys, having lots of worms can be
Speaker 1: good for you and normal and good. So even though
Speaker 1: worms are gross and squiggly, I think we should appreciate
Speaker 1: some of the cool things they do for us. But
Speaker 1: I don't want you to just appreciate squirmy bugs. I
Speaker 1: want you to fall in love with them. So I'm
Speaker 1: about to talk about a worm who technically isn't even
Speaker 1: a real worm, but its own brand of adorable wormy animal.
Speaker 1: So joining me today is director, writer, comedian and all
Speaker 1: around great Gale Carmen Angelica. Man, I was trying my
Speaker 1: heart is not to laugh during that and interrupted. I
Speaker 1: think it was leaning very far from the my That
Speaker 1: was delightful, our. I'm so I'm so excited. I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I love insects so much, and I am about to
Speaker 1: talk about some of my absolute favorite bugs in the
Speaker 1: whole world. I say bugs because we will also talk
Speaker 1: about a bug that's not an insect but an arthropod.
Speaker 1: And so first I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: velvet worms. I am I've been recently getting into these
Speaker 1: guys more because in Australia we know about the fires
Speaker 1: and it's terrible and in New South Wales there is
Speaker 1: a species of velvet worm that is in danger. And
Speaker 1: I really want people to appreciate because we all love Koala's,
Speaker 1: we all love the animals that are more iconic, and
Speaker 1: we often forget about bugs that get caught in these
Speaker 1: ecological disasters. So I want everyone to fall in love
Speaker 1: with velvet worms. So first I'm just gonna show you
Speaker 1: some pictures of these guys, because I think once you
Speaker 1: see them, oh, oh my god, I didn't think I
Speaker 1: could fall in love with a worm so fat love
Speaker 1: at first sight. Oh it's little face is so perfect,
Speaker 1: is it? The face? Is that a little mouth? So
Speaker 1: kind of described to the audience what you're seeing. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's got it really is velvet like you do get.
Speaker 1: I was like about to ask, is this velvet worm velvety?
Speaker 1: And it sure is. It looks soft to the touch.
Speaker 1: It's got little teeny nubby legs, a little little nubbins
Speaker 1: blue blue like yeah. And then they're actually the scientific
Speaker 1: term for them, Carmen, the fancy scientific term is stubb legs.
Speaker 1: The stubble. Well, they're perfect in every way, uh, those
Speaker 1: little stuff. And then they also have antennas. But those
Speaker 1: antennas are thick and velvety. Yeah, they're little there they
Speaker 1: can extend a little more, you know, like with snails
Speaker 1: how their their eyes stocks can kind of like get extend.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they can be longer and more inquisitive, but they
Speaker 1: are they're pudgy. And then there's there's a picture where
Speaker 1: it's almost like curly curly, yeah, doing a little little
Speaker 1: head tilt. They so basically think about it's like a
Speaker 1: long caterpillar, almost like a really long caterpillar with these two,
Speaker 1: these two little little antenna that they're just so cute
Speaker 1: because they looked so they're they're like little fingers coming
Speaker 1: out of their head. They're expressive. They're very expressive. They're
Speaker 1: very in their velvety. They're they're very soft looking. And
Speaker 1: they have a bunch of these chubby little legs, so
Speaker 1: not like not tiny tiny legs, but kind of chubby legs,
Speaker 1: the little legs, the ones that you feel like you
Speaker 1: could take one and just kind of shake it, like
Speaker 1: I meet you, but like times a bunch like nice
Speaker 1: to meet you, Nice to meet you, Nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: You know, I would spend hours shaking yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: shake this one and this one. Yeah, and they have
Speaker 1: that their little face it does. It looks very cute.
Speaker 1: And that thing in the sin here of it that
Speaker 1: looks like it's doing a cute little smile. That is
Speaker 1: its mouth. It is the mouth. And but those little
Speaker 1: bulbs on the side that look like cute little eyes
Speaker 1: that are closed, not not quite eyes, but they are.
Speaker 1: They are great and we'll talk about those soon. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a fun surprise. So, first of all, these
Speaker 1: velvet worms are a phylum of soft body animals with
Speaker 1: a velvety texture and many stubby legs, so it contains
Speaker 1: many different species. They've been around for about five hundred
Speaker 1: million years, so these are they've got some staying power.
Speaker 1: This brand, the velvet worm brand. They're in the clayd
Speaker 1: paranthropa wait, no, didn't do that right, pan Arthropoda. That's it.
Speaker 1: I was about to say. Car was about like, hey, hey, you.
Speaker 1: So this contains velvet worms, tartar grades, which you may
Speaker 1: have heard of water bears as little microscopic cutie's. Have
Speaker 1: you seen those before? Yeah, they're they're adorable. It also
Speaker 1: contains arthropods and those are a bunch of but other
Speaker 1: bugs like a bunch of insects, you know, like all
Speaker 1: all everything else that you might consider bugs and more.
Speaker 1: They're they're not actually a type of insect. They're their
Speaker 1: own phylum, which is really interesting, and it's actually thought
Speaker 1: that they are. They are potentially a relative or a
Speaker 1: descendent of of hallucin Genia, which is that bizarre Cambrian
Speaker 1: warm like marine animal that had It was like a
Speaker 1: had all these feet on the bottom and all these
Speaker 1: spikes on its back, and it completely baffled evolutionary biologists
Speaker 1: for years, and they're like, well, which way does it turn?
Speaker 1: Like does it walk with the spikes or does it
Speaker 1: walk with the feet? They didn't know like what which
Speaker 1: way it went. So there are over two hundred species
Speaker 1: of velvet worms. What all of them are are super adorable,
Speaker 1: they all, I mean, and they come in so many
Speaker 1: different colors and flavors. They range in size from under
Speaker 1: an inch long too up to eight inches so they
Speaker 1: don't get very big. They can go from being teeny
Speaker 1: tiny to tiny, regular regular tiny. So they're found over
Speaker 1: a pretty wide area in terms of like which countries
Speaker 1: they're found in, but they are usually specialized to very
Speaker 1: small like kind of ecoregions. So they're found in South America, Africa,
Speaker 1: Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Uh. And they they,
Speaker 1: like I said, they come in all these different colors,
Speaker 1: so from purple to orange, white, black, brown, red blue
Speaker 1: with yellow spots. So they're all in my opinion, they're
Speaker 1: all really cute and some of them are really pretty too. Uh.
Speaker 1: They have a soft outer skin uh called a cute ocula,
Speaker 1: so which is some are to the cuticles at your
Speaker 1: nail bed. Uh. And it's highly flexible water repellent, although
Speaker 1: they can lose water through the skin because they actually
Speaker 1: also breathe through the skin and so they have these
Speaker 1: open pores on the skin that they used to breathe
Speaker 1: and they can they experience water loss through that uh.
Speaker 1: And so they have to live in these humid, moist
Speaker 1: environments otherwise they'll get too dried out. But because the
Speaker 1: skin is water repellent, and it's also covered in tiny papillae,
Speaker 1: which are these little bumps which are also they themselves
Speaker 1: are covered in microscopic scales, it gives them a very
Speaker 1: They aren't slimy, they're dry and velvet ea. So it
Speaker 1: feels like if you pet one. If you have the
Speaker 1: privilege of petting one, it feels like stroking velvet. I hope,
Speaker 1: so I really, I mean I literally said, it's like
Speaker 1: your cuticles. And I've been like feeling my cuticles, being like,
Speaker 1: is this like pet am I petting one? Right, It's
Speaker 1: like no, it's I bet it's better. Oh, it is
Speaker 1: absolutely better. It's like it's like stroking velvet. So, uh,
Speaker 1: those cute. One of their keytest features are their little
Speaker 1: stubby legs, which just looks like they look like little nubbins,
Speaker 1: and they are called stubbed feet like bi biologists. So
Speaker 1: they have between thirteen to forty three of these appendages.
Speaker 1: Each lag has a teeny tiny set of retractable kit
Speaker 1: and claws which you can't really see. And you're not
Speaker 1: gonna they aren't gonna hurt you. They wouldn't. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: they're they're they they're they're they're cool. Velvet doesn't suddenly
Speaker 1: get dangerous, does danger velvet? No? No, And there these
Speaker 1: little there, these little baggy appendages that don't have any joints,
Speaker 1: and they're moved using hydrostatic water or fluid pressure and
Speaker 1: the contraction of internal muscles. So it's kind of like
Speaker 1: little garden hose legs that just like you know, flippity
Speaker 1: flop around, and they have some muscle controls that help
Speaker 1: them move around. And that little pair of chubby antenna
Speaker 1: that looks so cute and curls like a little little
Speaker 1: love bug on the shape of a heart, like I
Speaker 1: love you. Uh. There are their main sensory organs, and
Speaker 1: they have a little mouth that has it does have
Speaker 1: a pair of mandibles, but it's deep inside the mouth
Speaker 1: so you don't see it. Like they're they're not showers there,
Speaker 1: m they're not even growers. They just are they're they're
Speaker 1: not showers at all. They're shot, they're not they're never nudes,
Speaker 1: but they're they're yeah, they're never mandibles, never minible. And
Speaker 1: they have a pair of really simple eye dots. And
Speaker 1: then the things that kind of look like their eyes,
Speaker 1: not Mr Mystery nozzles, are slime guns. A pair of
Speaker 1: slime guns. So the two bulbs at the side of
Speaker 1: their heads shoot twin streams of glue at their prey
Speaker 1: so their praise typically even smaller insects um or bugs
Speaker 1: or whatever, and they just like shoot out this glue spray.
Speaker 1: The glue sticks to their prey and then they're just
Speaker 1: stuck there and then they can take their time just
Speaker 1: kind of just like like scooty, scoot, scoot, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: eat your butt. Is what a terrifyingly adorable day. It's
Speaker 1: like it would be scary if you were a prey,
Speaker 1: but as huge people, it is really cute. Let me
Speaker 1: show you this in action. That's a greyhound. That's not
Speaker 1: recognize that greyhound eating a sandwich. That's not quite the
Speaker 1: video we want, all right, see it kind of looking
Speaker 1: I think I see the prey. Yeah, it's thinking. It's
Speaker 1: it's squirting the goo. It squirts it on on the
Speaker 1: bug and now the bug stuck. No, oh man, that
Speaker 1: bag is gonna get stuck. It's like it's like a
Speaker 1: it's like Spider Man with no like self control, just
Speaker 1: like like with like these wacky, wacky arms and they're
Speaker 1: like Spider Man, I've got you bill, no no cool
Speaker 1: hand gesture, just like just like like coming to my
Speaker 1: same and they're like, oh boy, I guess I am stuck.
Speaker 1: It's like it's the and they're these strands of slime,
Speaker 1: so it kind of like looks like double Dutch. Roping,
Speaker 1: But with slime, it's like you're playing my slime and
Speaker 1: I'm going to eat your butt. And then you just
Speaker 1: see that like the bug is just stuck and like
Speaker 1: it's like wiggling over being like, oh man, I hope
Speaker 1: you're ready, hope you enjoyed my slime. He's just like
Speaker 1: it's like, looks like you're not going anywhere, and I've
Speaker 1: got a captivodience. I'm gonna eat your butt. What a
Speaker 1: sick what's sick jokes? But I do love it because
Speaker 1: the velvet worm is so cute, Like all of these behaviors,
Speaker 1: like if the it does speak to a sort of
Speaker 1: bias we have with animals, like the cute the animals.
Speaker 1: The more of this kind of behavior, I think we'll permit,
Speaker 1: because if this was like a gross like wasp or
Speaker 1: something and be like, oh, how would you. But because
Speaker 1: he's got those cute little stubbly bubbly legs and that
Speaker 1: cute little face is like, oh you cute. You did
Speaker 1: like to torture your preak dogget, and I guess you
Speaker 1: got to survive so to produce that impressive spray of glue.
Speaker 1: Their slime producing glands actually extend all the way through
Speaker 1: their bodies like a wormy super soaker filled with glue.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. They also this is great. So if
Speaker 1: you thought that was the weirdest thing they did, I've
Speaker 1: got news for you. So they have really curious mating rituals.
Speaker 1: Some species are glares, but a lot of them are
Speaker 1: actually live bearing, and so they will give birth to
Speaker 1: little baby velvet worms that look exactly like the adult
Speaker 1: velvet worms, only teeny tiny, even teenier and tinier. And
Speaker 1: in some species, mating is basically how you would expect
Speaker 1: it to go. The males put their spermatophore into the
Speaker 1: female's genitals, you know, as you do, as as one does,
Speaker 1: as procreation generally happens, generally, I'm not saying all that right.
Speaker 1: And actually, a spermatophoor is a capsule that contains sperm.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it contains like other nutrients and stuff that will
Speaker 1: help nourish the female um. But it's it's basically like
Speaker 1: a capsule full of your your baby beans, you know what.
Speaker 1: That's a nice tidy way of exactly. It's just a
Speaker 1: little little care package full of sperm. So other species
Speaker 1: will actually this is insane, it's crazy. So they will
Speaker 1: deposit the spermatophor any place on the female, just like anywhere,
Speaker 1: like put just put on that like the worst Amazon
Speaker 1: delivery driver, just like here you go. And then what
Speaker 1: happens is that cuticle that skin actually collapse under the
Speaker 1: spermatophor and like absorb it in and it will migrate
Speaker 1: over to the which is hilarious. But also why are
Speaker 1: the males so lazy making it just like here you
Speaker 1: get just checking it over there? There, you just go
Speaker 1: the extra mile, like, well, I guess I got to
Speaker 1: move it over here in the right place. That's so
Speaker 1: cause I imagine like they are like here you go,
Speaker 1: and it lands on their head and then their head
Speaker 1: has to absorb it and take it all the way
Speaker 1: down to their generos. I'd be so, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: come on, well, it's funny you say that, because in
Speaker 1: some species the males just it's not it's they've got
Speaker 1: to go through a fancy stuff that you know, they
Speaker 1: deposit their own spermatophor onto their own heads, but pulled
Speaker 1: it into place, usually with like these soft spines or
Speaker 1: little dents, and then they hold it there and then
Speaker 1: he rubs his head against the female's genital opening. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's just I love how round about they're They're like
Speaker 1: trying to do these trick shots with their spermatophor like
Speaker 1: and put it on the head and under their arm shot.
Speaker 1: And I made a sperm hat excited about it. I know. Um.
Speaker 1: And there's one species that who can blame them, has
Speaker 1: decided to get rid of all the males and they
Speaker 1: just reproduce vi parthenogenesis, which is a sexual reproduction where
Speaker 1: it's just an all female species basically having clonal female.
Speaker 1: So they're just like, you know what, screw it, I
Speaker 1: do not accept your sperm hat coming over with a
Speaker 1: sperm hat. That's it. I am done. Uh. And actually
Speaker 1: sometimes they have these really complex social structures which you
Speaker 1: wouldn't typically see in in worms. Well these aren't actually,
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, these aren't technically worms. There their
Speaker 1: own like phylum. But yeah, it's still kind of surprising
Speaker 1: to see outside of what we think of as social
Speaker 1: insects like termites, ants and bees. But um, the uh
Speaker 1: you Perry pat twites Raleigh, which is found in New
Speaker 1: South Wales limps and groups of up to fifteen wormis
Speaker 1: led by a dominant female and they hunt together and
Speaker 1: feed together, and they have this hierarchy where the dominant
Speaker 1: female gets the first nibble, followed by the other females,
Speaker 1: and then the males, and then finally the young. Uh
Speaker 1: So it's kind of, you know, it's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a lady's first policy, but it's kind of a
Speaker 1: little rude because the hierarchy is maintained by them kicking
Speaker 1: each other with their little stubby legs. Really, that's how
Speaker 1: you find out who I'm in charge. Well, well, tank
Speaker 1: Karate kicks like little, tiny nubble legs. And because he
Speaker 1: said they were like little, said no, they're like yeah,
Speaker 1: they're like little. They're little little wibbly hose. They don't
Speaker 1: have joint so they're just just like they're kind of
Speaker 1: jingling at each other, just aggressive jelly wing. I love it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I want to get into that fight.
Speaker 1: And you know, I love these worms so much. I
Speaker 1: actually converted my my Twitter account into a velvet worm
Speaker 1: stand account, ye, because I'm just a huge fan of them.
Speaker 1: They are adorable, they're fascinating. They have incredible hunting strategies
Speaker 1: and incredible mating strategies, so it's just they're the whole package.
Speaker 1: There the whole package and sperm hats, the sperm hats
Speaker 1: fashion and fashion high fashion. Oh man, these velvet worms
Speaker 1: are totally charming. But could you charm a worm? I'm
Speaker 1: talking about charming earthworms. Worm charming, otherwise known as worm
Speaker 1: grunting or worm fiddle ng, is a traditional technique of
Speaker 1: coaxing earthworms out of the ground. Originally done to get
Speaker 1: worms for fishing, it became something of a competitive sport. Devon,
Speaker 1: England hosts the Worm Charming Festival, and there's a worm
Speaker 1: Charming Championship and Festival in Ontario, Canada. And Florida holds
Speaker 1: the American Worm grunt and Festival. And yes, it's officially
Speaker 1: grunting with an apostrophe. How do these worm charmers cast
Speaker 1: a spell on their wiggly quarry? You'll want to vibrate
Speaker 1: the ground, which coaxes the worms to the surface. Worm
Speaker 1: charmers typically drive a wooden steak into the ground, which
Speaker 1: they vibrate using a metal rod or saw. Some play
Speaker 1: music or strike garden fork. Interestingly, these techniques are also
Speaker 1: used in the animal Kingdom by warm meeting birds who
Speaker 1: stamp on the ground with their feet. It's thought that
Speaker 1: these vibration caused the worms to emerge because the worms
Speaker 1: associate them with the sensation of an oncoming mole or
Speaker 1: approaching rain, both of which means a bad time for
Speaker 1: the worm if they stay in the ground, either getting
Speaker 1: eaten or flooded. So when they're tricked by worm charming,
Speaker 1: it's out of the fire and into the frying pan.
Speaker 1: What you've never heard of? A worm? Amlet a wallet?
Speaker 1: When we return? What has beautifully colored fuzz, shimmering, adorable
Speaker 1: eyes and ate fluffy legs. It's spiders. It's spiders times.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to convince you to love spiders.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to go back to listening to David Attenborgh
Speaker 1: talking about chillbirds. Do we have an innate fear of spiders?
Speaker 1: Researchers in Germany and Sweden looked at rachnophobia to ask
Speaker 1: maybe we're born with it, or maybe it's maybe learned.
Speaker 1: They found that infants as young as six months old
Speaker 1: responded to pictures of spiders and snakes with increased dilation
Speaker 1: of their pupils, a sign of increased stress or attention.
Speaker 1: Perhaps this makes sense to be pre programmed in our
Speaker 1: baby brains. Mistakenly handle the wrong eight legged buddy or
Speaker 1: cute little ground noodle and you can get a nasty
Speaker 1: or even fatal bite. But just because we may be
Speaker 1: born with a bias against spiders doesn't mean we have
Speaker 1: to remain that way. Sure it's great to avoid black widows,
Speaker 1: brown recluses, and other misanthropic and venomous spiders, but most
Speaker 1: spiders are harmless and do us a great service by
Speaker 1: eating up other more pesky bugs. So I want to
Speaker 1: present to you the world's cutest and most charismatic spider,
Speaker 1: the peacock jumping spider. Even if you don't get over
Speaker 1: your fear of spiders, I'm hoping you'll make an exception
Speaker 1: for this cute, little leggy friend. So have you ever
Speaker 1: seen a peacock spider. I don't think I've ever seen
Speaker 1: a peacock spider. And I loved spiders growing. Oh that's great,
Speaker 1: I am excited. This is good. You're gonna love it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, at the spider. It's beautiful. And look
Speaker 1: at the little face, a little face. So jumping spiders
Speaker 1: I think have the cutest faces of spiders because they
Speaker 1: have these eyes they've got They've got four of them
Speaker 1: that are front facing, four big, big old eyes. They're
Speaker 1: really cute because they have the proportion of the eye
Speaker 1: to the face makes them look like they look like babies.
Speaker 1: They look like a Pixar character, Like a Pixar character.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think there is a YouTube series that
Speaker 1: it's like, there's this little spider, this little jumping spider
Speaker 1: that's animated and it's adorable. But they don't even have
Speaker 1: to change it from the reality, Like it's pretty realistic looking.
Speaker 1: I don't think they alter their proportions that much. Maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit, but barely, yeah, barely. And it's got
Speaker 1: the those little little leg the little armies right in
Speaker 1: front that are really fluffing cute. Those are called petal palps,
Speaker 1: and they're just these like most spiders have them, but
Speaker 1: they're not usually so cutely proportioned and fluffy, and they
Speaker 1: sometimes it makes it look like they have a little
Speaker 1: fancy mustache when they hold them up to their face
Speaker 1: when they're thinking, they're looking at they're pensive when they're
Speaker 1: having a moment. It's like like if I if I
Speaker 1: no miss marfatt, so am I the tough it? When
Speaker 1: the rain comes down, do I go up the drain
Speaker 1: or out of the drain? So so the genus Maraudas,
Speaker 1: which is the peacock jumping spider genus contains many species
Speaker 1: of peacock spiders, but I first wanna explore the Maraudas volans,
Speaker 1: which is the Australian peacock spider. Again, Australia, you have
Speaker 1: so many amazing insects and bugs. This is not an insect, sorry,
Speaker 1: but it is a bug. You have amazing spiders. I
Speaker 1: know that Australia gets mocked a lot for having all
Speaker 1: the poisonous, scary animals, which is true. They do. They
Speaker 1: do have, they do have great but they also have
Speaker 1: the cutest, most amazing animals as well. So this this
Speaker 1: little guy, uh is about the size of a grain
Speaker 1: of rice, like many of his fellow peacock jock peink spiders. Yes,
Speaker 1: is teeny tiny. He has a beautiful, vibrant blue, red
Speaker 1: and yellow back fancy like a peacock. And that's one
Speaker 1: of the first photos that I showed you. He's got
Speaker 1: those fluffy little pet of palps. The male's job is
Speaker 1: to impress the female long enough to mate with her
Speaker 1: without getting eaten. Uh. It's a tough world out there.
Speaker 1: The dating scene, the spider dating scene has its pitfalls
Speaker 1: that are a little more extreme. I think, yeah, we
Speaker 1: complain about tender but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: kind of like the dating scene in l a. So
Speaker 1: let's go through his his technique to seduce a lady spider.
Speaker 1: It is a multi state like he obviously peacocks because
Speaker 1: he's stop preaty because he's so pretty. So first he
Speaker 1: unfolds his little back flap, which is a colorful white
Speaker 1: fringed or black fringed flap that forms a fan like
Speaker 1: and that's kind of why they're I mean, that is
Speaker 1: literally why they're called peacock spiders, because with a peacock,
Speaker 1: they unfurled that tail fan. With the peacock spider are
Speaker 1: they unfold their little back flap that looks like this
Speaker 1: colorful fan. And he sticks his little legs up behind
Speaker 1: him and starts to clap them together, the little clap
Speaker 1: and dance, and he vibrates his fan for attention and
Speaker 1: does once he's got the female's attention, he does a
Speaker 1: little dance. And here's the thing is it's a risky
Speaker 1: proposition because if he dances and the female is not interested,
Speaker 1: she might just eat them. She's she's tougher than you know,
Speaker 1: she's like, am I honey or hungry? You know. It's
Speaker 1: like it's like America's got talent, got Simon cow you know,
Speaker 1: and they you know, I don't. Reality TV is not
Speaker 1: my star, and I like, how many points frankly, this
Speaker 1: is a reality reality this is but this was but
Speaker 1: if this was Spider's talent, Spider's got talent, it would
Speaker 1: just be instead of getting voted out with the red
Speaker 1: ex dis you just get eaten. Spider's Scott's talent. That's
Speaker 1: that's talent. That's a real risk. That's being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of think she's cute, but she could eat
Speaker 1: me if she doesn't find me. You know, that would
Speaker 1: be it's like that would be cool for like dating apps,
Speaker 1: like you know, like it would really reduce the amount
Speaker 1: of I think that like sort of foul exchanges with
Speaker 1: people and rude people. If it's just like, well, she
Speaker 1: has the option of just eating me, so I guess
Speaker 1: I'll be polite if she's not into it, not going
Speaker 1: to ask for nudes if she can eat me. So
Speaker 1: if the mail wins her over, she'll allow him to
Speaker 1: mate with her and she'll either let him go or
Speaker 1: eat them. You know. Tends on me if she's hungry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would have if I was that male, I would
Speaker 1: have throw a snack. Here's the snickers. And also, I
Speaker 1: hope you like milky way. That's that's funny because there
Speaker 1: are some not these spiders, but there are some species
Speaker 1: of spiders that give nuptial gifts to the females. So
Speaker 1: the females will be eating something as they're mating, which
Speaker 1: reduces the chance of them getting eaten. So Carmen, your
Speaker 1: joke is very scientifically. Oh my god, I am a
Speaker 1: smart spider. You're a smart spider, doctor spider, Carmen Angelic.
Speaker 1: Ready with snacks. I mean that's who I am now,
Speaker 1: I'm always ready with snacks. So I would definitely survive
Speaker 1: as a spider. So these mating dances can be as
Speaker 1: quick as a few minutes or as long as a
Speaker 1: little under an hour. So let me show you this.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love how far away he is
Speaker 1: from her too. As he's dancing, He's like, please, don't, please,
Speaker 1: don't eat me. But also look, it is funny because
Speaker 1: sometimes there is a little bit of that cat mouse
Speaker 1: where he'll stick out his little fan TOI. She hold
Speaker 1: his little legs that do a little and then like
Speaker 1: she jumps at him, he like leaps back and he's like,
Speaker 1: oh god, don't eat me. But here's what is good.
Speaker 1: But if you're still interested in card, okay, I see
Speaker 1: you didn't like that. I see you kind of want
Speaker 1: to eat me now, but what about this move? Not
Speaker 1: like that? If I'm gonna just give me a little
Speaker 1: bit of space here, Now, what about a little bit
Speaker 1: of a buch of shimmy, No, oh god, alright, what
Speaker 1: of my cloud? Three times cloud? Looking he's looking through
Speaker 1: these flash cards. He's like, I don't know if you're
Speaker 1: coming at me with hunger or with like because I'm
Speaker 1: done for what is that drooling? Like you're you find
Speaker 1: me attractive? Or is it okay you're put you got
Speaker 1: a little salt chake out? Is that like a little
Speaker 1: kinky thing or okay? All right? The barbecue sauce coming
Speaker 1: out up? I gotta I you know what I'm done?
Speaker 1: So they have several dance moves, and they do. If
Speaker 1: they're attentive, they can actually see if the female's interested
Speaker 1: or not, because the female will actually wave her abdomen
Speaker 1: back and forth and like a little no gesture. If
Speaker 1: they're not interested and attentive, males can either escape with
Speaker 1: their life or adjust their dance a little bit, sort
Speaker 1: of use it up, so if they're persistent. If they're persistent,
Speaker 1: So there several dance moves. So there's the the opposite
Speaker 1: themal Wait, no, that's not it opathosomal bobbing, which is
Speaker 1: butt bobbing. Uh, there's the third leg wave. So first
Speaker 1: I want to say, actually, there's a researcher, Madeline Gerard
Speaker 1: at Berkeley who has been studying these peacock spiders, and
Speaker 1: she published a paper along with her cohorts where they
Speaker 1: recorded peacock spiders and their dance rituals and broke it
Speaker 1: down for us so we can see what was going on.
Speaker 1: So first there's the opposite, themal bobbing, which is but
Speaker 1: bobbing basically just like a little buckle like a boom
Speaker 1: boom boom boom. And then there's the third leg wave,
Speaker 1: which is not it's it's not the quote third leg.
Speaker 1: It's actually their third set of legs wave, not a sweener.
Speaker 1: So um, there's that would be inappropriate for this, it's inappropriate.
Speaker 1: And there's the fan raise and expansion. That's that when
Speaker 1: they like pop out there beautiful backflap and wave it around. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's the I'm not making this one up. It's called
Speaker 1: the rumble rumps. That's that's where they vibrate the fan
Speaker 1: and the fan dance and third leg dance where they
Speaker 1: like wave their legs, clap their legs together and like
Speaker 1: like rustle the fan around and moved from side to side. Um,
Speaker 1: and if that all goes well, and they're not eaten. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's the premunt display and crunch rolls where it's like
Speaker 1: wiggling its butt and like like it starts extending its
Speaker 1: arms out like like lee, hug me, hug me, please,
Speaker 1: hug me, please, hug me, and um. Of the sixty
Speaker 1: four males that they studied, only sixteen were successful in mating.
Speaker 1: It's suggests that females have ex eatingly high standards, which
Speaker 1: means that probably they're trying to select just the absolute best, boldest,
Speaker 1: fittest males of the bunch. You really do, That's what
Speaker 1: it's about. In the spider life, it kind of makes
Speaker 1: sense because peacock spiders only live for about a year
Speaker 1: and most of the females don't remate, and then they'll
Speaker 1: often die after their first set of eggs because they'll
Speaker 1: guard their eggs for weeks on end without eating. So
Speaker 1: being extra choosy about their mate is important because they
Speaker 1: basically have one shot at it, and they starve themselves
Speaker 1: because yeah, because if they go out hunting, the risk
Speaker 1: is that something is going to come eat their eggs,
Speaker 1: so they stay with their eggs, sacrifice at all for
Speaker 1: their eggs. So it makes sense for them to be
Speaker 1: choosy when it comes to their males. Also makes sense
Speaker 1: for them to eat the males after after because like
Speaker 1: all that extra nutrition is really going to help them.
Speaker 1: So there are of course many other species of peacock spiders,
Speaker 1: all with their own unique dance and coloration and rhythm,
Speaker 1: and it's really funny. They back in Madeline's Gerard's lab
Speaker 1: at you see Berkeley, they made a video of these
Speaker 1: various dances, and I just want to show you a
Speaker 1: few and and have you listened to some of the
Speaker 1: rhythms that they make. So that's one one of the spiders.
Speaker 1: Let's get another. One's moves in pre kind of leans
Speaker 1: to the side. This one's uh, that one doing that
Speaker 1: weird sideling dance is actually called the sparkle muffin uh spider,
Speaker 1: and it's nearly discovered one. This one is that I
Speaker 1: love that one to the black one because it just
Speaker 1: it basically it's a little butt fan just because like
Speaker 1: tick talk talk like a little metronome. Uh. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's incredible. They have their unique vibration, their unique rhythm
Speaker 1: and dances and kind of colors and butt shakes and
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. And even though spiders don't
Speaker 1: hear like we do, we don't have they don't have
Speaker 1: ears like humans do, they can feel vibrations with sensory
Speaker 1: organs and hairs on their legs, and so it's like
Speaker 1: they just get this full spectacle of movement, color and music. Basically,
Speaker 1: wow wow spiders. I know, I thought I loved them before,
Speaker 1: but I love them even more. Yeah, it's it's I
Speaker 1: think it's one of those things where we we think
Speaker 1: of them as being sort of, I guess, soulless little murderers,
Speaker 1: but look at this. They've got they've got heart. I mean,
Speaker 1: they are still they will still engage in the murdering part,
Speaker 1: but at least I don't know very many animals that
Speaker 1: don't write exactly. At least they spruce it up with
Speaker 1: a little bit of dance moves before the horror. And
Speaker 1: they truly are very pretty beautiful, beautiful. I really I
Speaker 1: will include some links to them in the show notes,
Speaker 1: but I really encourage you guys to look up photos
Speaker 1: of peacock spiders because they're adorable and absolutely gorgeous. Spiders
Speaker 1: get a bad rap and there are a few myths
Speaker 1: that I Katie Golden Spider, Attorney at law, would like
Speaker 1: to clear up for my clients slanderous myth Number one,
Speaker 1: you will swallow around eight spiders a year. This is
Speaker 1: just completely untrue. Spiders don't want to get in your
Speaker 1: big gross smells no offense. In fact, this myth was
Speaker 1: created specifically to show how galible people could be when
Speaker 1: it comes to quote unquote facts written on the Internet.
Speaker 1: It originates from PC Professionals. Article writer Lisa Holst wrote
Speaker 1: a list of ridiculous facts to prove her point about
Speaker 1: what people would be willing to believe, including the eight
Speaker 1: mouth spiders a year thing. Admitted it in writing Huna, Lisa,
Speaker 1: I'm about to issue as spider subpoena, which is basically
Speaker 1: a cluster of dead flies and some sticky webbing. Anyways,
Speaker 1: Another slanderous smith is that spiders can lay their eggs
Speaker 1: under your skin. Now, there are plenty of bugs who
Speaker 1: like to do this, but spiders ain't one of them.
Speaker 1: In fact, spiders are often victims of parasites such as
Speaker 1: parasitoid wasps parasitic hare worms. So if you think about it,
Speaker 1: team human and team spiders are on the same side
Speaker 1: when it comes to parasites. Now slanderous item number three.
Speaker 1: Thousands of spiders work together to spend giant webs that
Speaker 1: can cover trees, sometimes extending over twenty five ft long. Well,
Speaker 1: all right, you got us on this one. It's true.
Speaker 1: Communal spiders can actually do this, but I promise my
Speaker 1: clients have no current plans to capture humans and eat
Speaker 1: them when we return. What's round, fuzzy, buzzy and flies.
Speaker 1: It's not what you think. We know that pollinators are important.
Speaker 1: It's how a lot of plants do. Set Bees are
Speaker 1: renowned for their pollinating abilities, as they should be, tiny
Speaker 1: be sized awards all around, but there are many other
Speaker 1: insects and animals who are pollinators as well. Ants and
Speaker 1: even mosquitoes can help pollinate. Hummingbirds, sunbirds, and honey eaters
Speaker 1: dip into flowers with their long beaks, carrying bits of
Speaker 1: pollen with them as they fly around from flower to flower.
Speaker 1: Those little pollen covered teases. Bats are fantastic pollinators. Nectar
Speaker 1: slurping bats, such as the lesser long nose bat, can
Speaker 1: sometimes imbibe so much flower juice their entire furry bodies
Speaker 1: become yellow with a dusting of pollen. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like when you eat too many cheetahs and you become
Speaker 1: marked with that sweet, sweet orange powder. Now I want
Speaker 1: to talk about one of the cutest and most prodigious
Speaker 1: pollinators in the world who's also got a bit of
Speaker 1: a dirty secret. So, Carmen, have you ever heard of
Speaker 1: a bee fly? Well, come on, silly, they fly all
Speaker 1: the time. Now I'm just kidding you. Well, the bee
Speaker 1: fly our family flies who look stunningly like bees. And
Speaker 1: I got a couple of photos of them. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: they're so cute, right, These are a lot of cute
Speaker 1: little guys. I know. These are the cutest buggies in
Speaker 1: the world. Look at that moving a little nuggy buggy,
Speaker 1: so cute, just a little nugget. So yeah, these are
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. Are the Anna stoke Acus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a genus a very fuzzy bee flies that look
Speaker 1: like pokemon. And that that's like what I showed you
Speaker 1: just now. They look like CUTEI fly the pokemon. They
Speaker 1: have these round fuzzy bodies that look like pussy willow buds.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen that? Like the little pustle willle
Speaker 1: buzz They're just like little poofs of buzz and they
Speaker 1: have a long, black pointed proboscis that looks like a
Speaker 1: nose and a little black eyes and wings, and that
Speaker 1: little proboscis is not for stinging, doesn't sting anything. It
Speaker 1: just is for dipping into nectar. And in England they're
Speaker 1: also known as bee walls like narwalls because of their
Speaker 1: little tusk like proboscis and uh they hum when they
Speaker 1: fly and because of that long beak like proboscis, they
Speaker 1: look a little bit like hummingbirds as they feed on nectar.
Speaker 1: And they're they're fantastic pollinators. They're harmless to humans. They
Speaker 1: are found all over the world. The anastokic Us barbados
Speaker 1: is also known as the bearded beefly, is found in
Speaker 1: North America. Hey, yeah, there you go, And yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're totally friendly to humans. They won't hurt us. They're
Speaker 1: not quite as friendly to beetles, wasps and solitary bees
Speaker 1: who nest on the ground because they have a little
Speaker 1: bit of a sneaky, sneaky nesting strategy. So the beefly
Speaker 1: will lay her eggs in the nest of one of
Speaker 1: these insects, usually without even needing the land, she can
Speaker 1: shake her abdomen and basically dive bomb it with eggs.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like like if you just like we're
Speaker 1: giving birth to a baby and you're just like you're
Speaker 1: like flying around and just like bombs away like babies,
Speaker 1: bab babies, babies for everyone, Babies for you, babies for you. Uh.
Speaker 1: These bomber flies actually have a sand chamber in their
Speaker 1: abdomen that they fill up with sand and then like
Speaker 1: use it to coat the eggs and sand so that
Speaker 1: they're more aerodynamic, because you know, these are little their
Speaker 1: little b sized flies, and so their eggs are pretty
Speaker 1: small and to overcome that wind resistance, if you coat
Speaker 1: them in sand, it makes them better projectiles. And it
Speaker 1: also helps camouflage them so the their host targets don't
Speaker 1: know what's up. Then the larva will once they hatch
Speaker 1: and they are deposited inside these burrows of Usually it's
Speaker 1: like a wasp or a solitary bee or a beetle
Speaker 1: of some kind that burrows into the ground to lay
Speaker 1: their own larva, but the bee fly shoots their babies
Speaker 1: in there. Their babies hatch into larva, and then once
Speaker 1: they're and once they've infiltrated these nests, they'll eat all
Speaker 1: the pollen provisions that were laid out for their hosts babies,
Speaker 1: and then they'll also eat the host babel. I felt
Speaker 1: like this wasn't going somewhere good, and I was right.
Speaker 1: Then they used the burrow as their own nursery until
Speaker 1: they grow up into fully grown, fuzzy adults, a little
Speaker 1: bad babies, well bad babies babies, And despite this brutal
Speaker 1: act of forced babysitting, they're actually really wonderful pollinators, sometimes
Speaker 1: even outpacing their be competitors when it comes to pollinating flowers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the appearance of bee flies. You know, obviously they're
Speaker 1: called bee flies because they resemble bees, and there there's
Speaker 1: a wide variety. My favorite are just those those fuzzy ones.
Speaker 1: But there's a wide variety of different kinds of beeflies.
Speaker 1: Some aren't so fuzzy, some look exactly like a bee,
Speaker 1: some kind of look almost wasp like. Now it could
Speaker 1: be Baitsian mimicry. That's when an animal who is harmless
Speaker 1: mimics a more scary animal to defend itself from potential predators.
Speaker 1: So that's like the caterpillar who pretends to look like
Speaker 1: a snake or the moth who has like eye spots
Speaker 1: on its wings, so it looks like an owl. Uh,
Speaker 1: And so it could be trying to mimic a bee
Speaker 1: so that it's potential predators leaves it alone. Because when
Speaker 1: it's uh, when it's both kind of laying eggs and
Speaker 1: laying low to the ground and when it is born
Speaker 1: at it or not born, but when it comes out
Speaker 1: of the burrow that it's stolen, it's vulnerable because it
Speaker 1: has to like allow its wings to dry in the
Speaker 1: air and such, just kind of sitting there like a lame.
Speaker 1: So if it's camouflaged in some way either by looking
Speaker 1: like a bee. There's also the theory that this is
Speaker 1: kind of convergent evolution where their their coloration is either
Speaker 1: trying to blend in with the ground to avoid detection.
Speaker 1: Like there's some of the bees that are kind of
Speaker 1: spotty or buff colored um, but the ones with stripes,
Speaker 1: it could be that they're just using the same strategy
Speaker 1: of bees where they're using disruptive coloration. So like these
Speaker 1: these banded stripes make it harder to for predators to
Speaker 1: pick out the shape of the bee. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: really interesting life they lead, and they're also extremely cute.
Speaker 1: It's all bees, the bad baby be baby bees. You
Speaker 1: know that that Hollywood trope of like the the evil
Speaker 1: but cute cute, cute evilness, like a lot of like
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of what's like the most famous
Speaker 1: famous example of like the evil cute, adorable, adorable using
Speaker 1: their adorable nous to like sneak into your life and
Speaker 1: destroy you. Man, boss Baby, No, No, I'm just kidding. Yeah,
Speaker 1: boss Baby. Boss Baby is always the right an allergen
Speaker 1: to make. It's it's an iconic film that you can
Speaker 1: be used in all situations. Oh god, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I feel like this, this has potential in a future.
Speaker 1: I could see it in an animated film where it's
Speaker 1: like the the b fly can a bee fly? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there we go. I now I know that. Yeah the
Speaker 1: first time and not again now because I know about it.
Speaker 1: I kind of wish for all of these little buggies
Speaker 1: that we've talked about, the velvet worm, the peacock spider,
Speaker 1: and the bee fly kind of I don't normally say
Speaker 1: this about bugs, but I wish there was a giant
Speaker 1: version version I do, especially the elvet worm. If I
Speaker 1: could just have a big, old, pudgy velvet worm, I
Speaker 1: could carry like a baby and have as a little
Speaker 1: baby what a pet, and then you could just have
Speaker 1: it go like sick them and have them like shoot
Speaker 1: glue at people you don't like and then slowly approach
Speaker 1: towards them. But a peacock spider pet friend would also
Speaker 1: be adorable and cute so beautiful. Man, I would just
Speaker 1: like give me a bunch of giant bugs. All right,
Speaker 1: we'll get started work. I'll work on it. I'll work
Speaker 1: on and see what I can do. I'll see what
Speaker 1: I can do. Do you have a favorite bug? Or
Speaker 1: if I convinced you adopt one of these, is your
Speaker 1: favorite bus? I mean I really love I mean that
Speaker 1: worm with velvet worm so dank cute, it's so cute.
Speaker 1: I favorite bug. I'm trying to think if there's a
Speaker 1: favorite book. Before this, I will say I was obsessed
Speaker 1: with spiders as a child, and it sort of hasn't
Speaker 1: gone away. That's unusual, you know, usually, like even I
Speaker 1: was scared of of spiders when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: younger kid, and like it was actually because I was
Speaker 1: scared of them that I really tried to learn more
Speaker 1: about them to kind of get over it. And so
Speaker 1: it's interesting to hear when someone isn't like, how young
Speaker 1: were you when you I think I did like a
Speaker 1: project on spiders when I was in first grade. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: so yeah you started you got in the spider trade
Speaker 1: and young, and then I was like really into them.
Speaker 1: And then I think there was like a personal pride
Speaker 1: with being like and I'm not afraid of it. But
Speaker 1: then one day I did get bitten by a spider
Speaker 1: when I was like a teenager, and then I developed
Speaker 1: fear because I was like, oh, they do hurt, they
Speaker 1: do by what do you know what spider you were
Speaker 1: bitten by? I think it was like it wasn't poisonous,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was in my shoe, and I
Speaker 1: feel bad because like I had, you know, it was
Speaker 1: like imagine a giant foot entering the place you were
Speaker 1: just hanging out right like a little rude to be
Speaker 1: like you're you're just like you found a nice little
Speaker 1: cozy area taking a little now, but a giant but
Speaker 1: it just comes on in trying to evade your personal space.
Speaker 1: So it like bit my foot and I think it
Speaker 1: was I don't know but it was pretty. It was like, um,
Speaker 1: I'd say it was as big as like the tip
Speaker 1: of my finger, So it wasn't like teeny right, um,
Speaker 1: but the spider itself was big enough. But it hurt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember, I was like like yeah, and I got
Speaker 1: like a little yeah. Yeah, I've had a spider bite
Speaker 1: before and it's not fun. I got like a good
Speaker 1: juicy welt. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not I wouldn't say I'm afraid of them now. I
Speaker 1: think I have a healthy respect for spiders where I
Speaker 1: see that they're not one I want to be bitten by. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't, so I don't like go and pick
Speaker 1: them up like a lunatic, unless unless it's a jumping spider.
Speaker 1: I will actually very very gingerly pick up jumping spiders
Speaker 1: because they're so I mean, they're very tiny, so you
Speaker 1: have to be incredibly careful of handling them. You don't
Speaker 1: want to hurt them. But they are so cute, like
Speaker 1: to hold them on. They're tiny, they're so teeny. What
Speaker 1: was your favorite spider growing up? I really I really
Speaker 1: liked the I thought the Black Widow was really cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and very famous obviously, did you live somewhere where there
Speaker 1: were black widows around? No, I lived in Minnesota. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they weren't actually well there, I'm sure there were
Speaker 1: a fair amount of spiders, but I think only during
Speaker 1: certain seasons, like it's very cold, and imagine that makes
Speaker 1: it hard for spiders. Yeah. I think it's an interesting
Speaker 1: kind of difference because like where I grew up in
Speaker 1: San Diego, there were black widows everywhere, and so I
Speaker 1: you know, I would say I'm maybe not super afraid
Speaker 1: of them because of being exposed to them a lot,
Speaker 1: but I don't like them. As a little kid, you're
Speaker 1: digging around trying to find treasure and then you find
Speaker 1: a black widow instead, and you're like, well, now I've
Speaker 1: got to leave this whole area. Yeah, because they're very,
Speaker 1: very pleasonous. It's like you're digging around in the where
Speaker 1: I was like, you're looking for treasure. Huh, treasures spiders
Speaker 1: and spiders and pain. I mean, I I just thought
Speaker 1: they were so cool. They are cool, and I never
Speaker 1: saw it in person. So maybe you know, yea, you lived,
Speaker 1: we lived with them? Yeah? Yeah, I live my my
Speaker 1: year living with spi Now, Yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: interesting I think sort of the different responses to two spiders,
Speaker 1: and it's I think it is interesting that we have
Speaker 1: that innate response that like a fear response to snakes
Speaker 1: and spiders, but that a lot of people can overcome them,
Speaker 1: and I think especially children, I think when they are
Speaker 1: I know that Actually there's another study that study that
Speaker 1: shows that when you show young children positive representations of
Speaker 1: spiders and snakes, even like showing them like superheroes and stuff,
Speaker 1: it can change their attitude towards these animals, which I
Speaker 1: think is great because like, of course you want to
Speaker 1: teach children not to put snakes in their mouths, but
Speaker 1: you know, because it's rude, did the snake. But on
Speaker 1: the other hand, I think that if people were less
Speaker 1: afraid of these animals, they would get more positive attention.
Speaker 1: And especially now that we have all of these climate
Speaker 1: crises and and dangers to our environment, it's important to
Speaker 1: you also remember the animals that are not not so cuddly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all the time, although I would say velvet worms count
Speaker 1: as being extremely, very excessively cuddly. Are they your favorite
Speaker 1: at this point? Yeah? Favorite, They're my new favorite. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course, like there's room in my heart for all
Speaker 1: sorts of bugs, all sorts of worms and insects to
Speaker 1: crawl up inside and live there. So I know, heart warming,
Speaker 1: love it. It's a beautiful Patu. Well, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining me today. You got anything to plug?
Speaker 1: Um during anything to plug? Plug my heart with more bugs,
Speaker 1: more bugs your heart, That's what I'd like to plug. No,
Speaker 1: I guess if you wanna see my stuff, you can
Speaker 1: check my website Kerman Angelica doctor um. But otherwise, yeah,
Speaker 1: is it dot com dot car car Com? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that would be amazing. If it was dot Corman Angelica
Speaker 1: dot com would be amazing, but I don't think I
Speaker 1: have access to that, So it's dot com. Yeah, and yeah,
Speaker 1: if you want to see my work, but otherwise, yeah,
Speaker 1: more bugs for your heart is really what I'd like
Speaker 1: to plug. Thank you. You can find us at Creature
Speaker 1: feature Pod on Instagram, at Creature feet Pod on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and you can find us on the I Heart Radio website.
Speaker 1: You can find me on Twitter and check out my
Speaker 1: Velvet worm stand account at Katie Golden that's g O
Speaker 1: L D I N. And also I fight for bird
Speaker 1: rights on Twitter, the rights of birds which seems can't
Speaker 1: like sort of like I'm at a conflict of interest
Speaker 1: with my pro bird Rights account and my belt at
Speaker 1: worms Down account, given that there might be some conflict
Speaker 1: of interest there, but I've cleared it with a bunch
Speaker 1: of lawyers. Yes, yes, no quid pro quote pro quo bro.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the Space Classics for their super wormy song
Speaker 1: ex Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: To listen to more podcasts like this one, visit the
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. See you next Worm's Day.