Hi again, folks,
Today is the last day I will be using my collection of newspaper and magazine cuttings for a Fortean look at insect and spider invertebrates. Tomorrow I will conclude with Part Six: Charles Fort and invertebrate anomalies. Then on Sunday I will make a divergence to Wild Men in Madagascar.
You may be pleased to know that I am not starting off with spiders today, though they will feature in the blog. Instead: earwigs!
From Science Gossip September 1st 1865: 'WHITE EARWIG - The other day, I found among some gooseberries, a perfectly white earwig, the eyes being black. I have preserved it in spirits; thinking it very rare. I thought I should like to know whether it is so or not, and whether any of the readers of GOSSIP have met with anything of the kind. – R.F.M. [They are occasionally met with.-ED.SC.G] (1)
A year or two ago the CFZ Yearbook published Part 1 of a collection of Forteana from Science Gossip I put together.
Now making a large jump to 1995 and our favourite The Daily Telegraph for January 20th 1995: a story relating to my home county of Cheshire. `Entomologist finds Britain`s 640th spider`: A spider unknown in Britain has been discovered by scientists in a carpet of quivering moss on a Cheshire bog, Liverpool Museum reported yesterday, writes Roger Highfield, Science Editor. The eight-millimetre black spider lives at Wybunbury Moss, a 15ft-thick layer of vegetation that supports trees,bushes and unique wildlife above a 40ft-deep pool of water. Gnaphosa nigerrima was identified by entomologist Mr Chris Felton. The Natural History Museum`s spider specialist, Mr Paul Hillyard said it was “ a unique find”. There are now 640 species of British spiders. (2)
According to The New Scientist for April 29th 1995: `Spiders on speed get weaving`. (This reported on the interesting observations by scientists at NASA`s Marshall Space Center in Alabama who doped spiders with marijuana, benzedrine, caffeine and chloral hydrate to see how it would affect the construction and appearance of a spider`s web.) 'Spiders on marijuana are so laid back, they weave just so much of their webs and then...well, it just doesn`t seem to matter any more. On the soporific drug chloral hydrate, they drop off before they even get started…The more toxic the chemical, the more deformed the web. NASA researchers think that with help from a computer program they can quantify this effect to produce an accurate test for toxicity.' (3)
In August 1997 I had a strange correspondence with Terry Hooper on an unidentified insect in Ipswich, Suffolk:
'Re. insects. A friend in Ipswich has been talking to a bus driver he`s known for some time. This driver was digging his garden last year [1996] when he hit something “very hard” with his spade. He dug it up to find that it was a “beetle” with an undamaged carapace; it was the size of a man`s fist and he found others. This year [1997] he found more but “ a little smaller”. I personally, can`t think of any native beetle the size of a man`s fist that can be hit very hard with a spade and go undamaged. The chap is being asked to draw a sketch, get a photo or an actual specimen. Any ideas? [Methinks, now, nodules of iron ore? - R] (4)
About a week later I got another letter from Mr Hooper, which said: 'I will, however, pass on any details [of the insects - R] I get to you so don`t worry you won`t miss out! I guess with the SE having a drier climate these days (“dust bowl of England” and all that!) exotics are bound to creep in more. The fact that the beetles of `96 were the size of a man`s clenched fist but this year there are smaller (but still large) one`s indicates a breeding population of something!' [Mr Hooper, if you are reading this, I am not trying to be nasty; I just have a strange sense of humour - a breeding population of iron nodules?! Mind you, I had a neighbour in Wiltshire who believed stones grew. R] (5)
Lastly, in my penultimate blog on this subject, a visit to Hong Kong: on the CFZ website, Mystery Insects by Jon Downes, which I featured several days ago, mention is made of the “blood sucker”:
'...I have another mystery, which perhaps some reader of this article could help me solve. I was a child in Hong Kong during the nineteen sixties and I collected and kept a lot of local invertebrate wildlife. There was a small arthropod, ( I think it was an insect, but after thirty years I cannot be sure), which the local children called the “blood sucker”. [including myself - R]
'It was about an inch and a half in length and appeared like a very thick set ant with `knobbly` legs and a fairly heavy chitinous covering. I suspect that it may have been the immature form of one of the small ground mantids [this is the conclusion I reached – R] but I am not sure. If anyone reading this either lived, or lives in Hong Kong, and could help me solve a problem which has been `bugging me` (if you`ll excuse the dreadful pun) for many years I would be extremely grateful.' (6)
1.R. F. M. White Earwig. Science Gossip September 1st 1865
2.R. Highfield. Entomologist finds Britain`s 640th spider January 20th 1995
3. Anon. Spiders on speed get weaving. New Scientist April 29th 1995
4-5. Letters from Terry Hooper to Richard Muirhead August 6th and 12th 1997
6. Jonathan Downes. Mystery Insects. CFZ Website Accessed April 15th 1998. Since updated.
Peter Gabriel – Biko. September `77
Port Elizabeth,weather fine
It was business as usual
In Police Room 619
Oh Biko,Biko,because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
The man is dead, the man is dead
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