Full Transcript for It_s A Bug_s Life_ We_re Just Living In It_ with Jessica Ware

world's experts on these 44 00:02:09.569 --> 00:02:10.490 ugly bugs. 45 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:13.150 I think it's pronounced beautiful and charismatic. 46 00:02:13.189 --> 00:02:15.250 I mispronounced it. 47 00:02:15.370 --> 00:02:20.009 Did you say they were charismatic? Yeah. 48 00:02:20.409 --> 00:02:24.020 Colorful, check. Sounds beautiful, check. They do cool things with 49 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:28.270 their genitals, check. That's charisma. I mean, do. 50 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:33.650 They give enlightening stump speeches on the road in national politics? 51 00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:37.469 On tree stumps, yes. Ah, see what I did there? 52 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:39.870 They do. So let me get your whole title here. 53 00:02:40.379 --> 00:02:45.039 Division Chair in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology. So these 54 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:46.500 are spineless animals. 55 00:02:46.860 --> 00:02:49.759 Exactly, well, the people in my division, or the insects 56 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:52.620 in them? No, no, I call it, I jest. 57 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:57.409 What you study, yes. And you're Curator of Protists? Basal 58 00:02:57.530 --> 00:03:03.039 hexapoda and non-holometabola. Did I pronounce all that right? 59 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:06.319 I would say non-holometabola, but you could say. 60 00:03:06.419 --> 00:03:09.400 Oh, holometabola. I like that. I have no idea what 61 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:10.180 any of that is. 62 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:10.539 Yeah. 63 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.590 But they're creatures on this planet. Earth. 64 00:03:13.969 --> 00:03:17.889 Exactly. So there are insects that have complete metamorphosis. You 65 00:03:17.949 --> 00:03:20.370 know the story, the hungry caterpillar. And it goes from 66 00:03:20.409 --> 00:03:22.599 an egg, then there's a caterpillar, then there's a pupal 67 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:25.580 stage where there's a complete rearrangement of its internal and 68 00:03:25.620 --> 00:03:28.800 external anatomy. And it emerges as a butterfly. That's called 69 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:32.259 complete metamorphosis. There's one group that does it, holometabola. 70 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:34.789 I did not know that's the official term for that. 71 00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:39.770 Yeah, that's called holometabola. It's holometabola. like it's a complete 72 00:03:39.889 --> 00:03:43.069 metabolic change of its body. I don't study those. I 73 00:03:43.090 --> 00:03:44.659 study all the ones that don't do that. 74 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:46.539 Oh, you don't either. 75 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:47.800 Oh, non-holometabola. 76 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:50.300 She just described what she doesn't study. 77 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:51.580 Yeah. 78 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:52.759 Non-holometabola. 79 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:56.039 So like a baby grasshopper hatches from an egg, and 80 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.180 it just is a small version, and it just molts 81 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.139 to a larger and larger size until it's

the same 82 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:03.669 size as an adult grasshopper. There's no complete rearrangement of 83 00:04:03.729 --> 00:04:04.250 its body. 84 00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:09.789 You're also a PI, Principal Investigator. The Institute for Comparative Genomics? 85 00:04:10.129 --> 00:04:10.550 Comparative. 86 00:04:10.590 --> 00:04:12.270 This is one of the jewels in the crown of 87 00:04:12.289 --> 00:04:13.069 this institution. 88 00:04:13.449 --> 00:04:16.689 It's true. We are able to really understand 400 million 89 00:04:16.709 --> 00:04:20.069 years of evolution through the genome, through whole genome sequencing. 90 00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:24.939 Cool. And you're a professor in our built-in Gilda Graduate School. 91 00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:25.500 Yeah. 92 00:04:25.779 --> 00:04:26.160 Loving it. 93 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:26.899 Loving it. 94 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:29.759 Yeah. So you're the one to talk about bugs. 95 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:30.279 Well, insects. 96 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:31.740 Insects. Okay. 97 00:04:31.750 --> 00:04:33.100 Bugs are just one kind of insect. 98 00:04:33.139 --> 00:04:34.839 Don't tell me that they're all bugs. 99 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:36.019 Not to be that guy. 100 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:42.319 Stop. But also non-Holdemanatic or whatever, just so we're clear. 101 00:04:42.370 --> 00:04:48.149 Does she study non-bugs? Okay. Let's just figure this out. 102 00:04:49.250 --> 00:04:49.750 What's a bug? 103 00:04:49.930 --> 00:04:53.170 So bugs are in the one particular kind of insect, 104 00:04:53.300 --> 00:04:56.920 and they're in the order Hemiptera. They're called true bugs. 105 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:57.009 Yes. 106 00:04:57.350 --> 00:04:59.470 They're the only ones that are actually bugs. All the 107 00:04:59.529 --> 00:05:02.860 rest are just different kinds of insects. Dragonflies are dragonflies. 108 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.199 Beetles are beetles. Bugs are bugs. They're just a kind 109 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:08.779 of insect, and they all are united because they have 110 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:11.600 a mouth part that's sucking. They have like a little straw. 111 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:14.540 It's so beautiful. A little straw and a little pump 112 00:05:14.579 --> 00:05:17.339 to suck up things. So they suck up plant juice mostly, 113 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:21.209 except for the ones that suck up blood. Yeah. 114 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:21.930 Heroes. 115 00:05:22.149 --> 00:05:22.529 Okay. 116 00:05:22.569 --> 00:05:25.670 So are bees bugs? They suck up plant nectar. 117 00:05:25.689 --> 00:05:25.750 No. 118 00:05:26.060 --> 00:05:30.600 Bees don't. Bees have a tongue. Bees lap up plant nectar. 119 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:34.439 They're like little cats. 120 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:36.050 I didn't realize that. 121 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:37.769 Their tongue is really long. It looks like if you 122 00:05:37.790 --> 00:05:39.529 look at a bee when it's drinking, it actually has 123 00:05:39.550 -->

00:05:41.889 a pretty long tongue, and they stick it out, and 124 00:05:42.149 --> 00:05:45.129 actually they're just lapping up the nectar. 125 00:05:45.149 --> 00:05:49.970 Wait, wait, stop. You have divided yourselves among people who 126 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:53.939 study insects who suck and insects who lick. 127 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:54.839 Who lick, yeah. 128 00:05:55.410 --> 00:05:57.589 That's a category. 129 00:05:57.970 --> 00:06:00.050 So you don't study insects who lick? 130 00:06:00.470 --> 00:06:03.029 Yeah, no, none of that. I study insects that bite, 131 00:06:03.370 --> 00:06:05.050 that chew, and that suck. 132 00:06:06.189 --> 00:06:09.550 Wow, you just made a weird exception for that one 133 00:06:09.589 --> 00:06:11.069 category of licking. 134 00:06:11.089 --> 00:06:11.930 They're dead to me. 135 00:06:12.050 --> 00:06:12.470 Okay. 136 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:13.569 I will not. 137 00:06:15.860 --> 00:06:20.939 No. Just like the holometabola. She's a non-homometabola. 138 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:22.720 She's a non-homometabola. 139 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:23.819 Yeah, non-homometabola. 140 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:27.889 All right, so... Those are bugs. So how about when 141 00:06:27.930 --> 00:06:31.509 I'm outside in a twilight and gnats come around my head? 142 00:06:31.810 --> 00:06:32.430 Yeah. 143 00:06:32.649 --> 00:06:34.490 They're bugging me. So to me, they're bugs. 144 00:06:34.750 --> 00:06:34.990 Yeah. 145 00:06:35.110 --> 00:06:35.970 Are gnats bugs? 146 00:06:36.529 --> 00:06:39.389 No, they're insects. They're in the order Diptera, which are 147 00:06:39.410 --> 00:06:43.009 the flies. So gnats are a kind of fly. There's gnats. 148 00:06:43.029 --> 00:06:46.329 There's no-see-ums. There's horse flies. There's mosquitoes. We all know mosquitoes. 149 00:06:46.410 --> 00:06:49.360 Black flies. And those are all in the order Diptera. 150 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.449 Wait, wait. I heard no-see-um, and I didn't believe that 151 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:53.540 was the actual name of an insect. I thought the 152 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:56.379 person was just lying. No-see-em. 153 00:06:56.500 --> 00:06:58.379 Yeah, and it's all one word. No-see-em. 154 00:06:58.420 --> 00:07:00.180 No-see-em. Because you know what? 155 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:03.980 You don't see them. You don't see them. No, you 156 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:04.519 don't see them. 157 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.100 Finally, you named something after what it looks like. 158 00:07:07.490 --> 00:07:07.670 Yeah. 159 00:07:08.259 --> 00:07:10.029 Because none of that other stuff, we don't know what 160 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:11.470 you're talking about until you explain it. 161 00:07:11.730 --> 00:07:13.829 Yeah, the dragonflies, I mean, they don't really look like 162 00:07:13.850 --> 00:07:17.910 a dragon. They do fly. I'll give you that. Right? 163 00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:20.050 It's in the name. It's part of the name. 164 00:07:20.110 --> 00:07:22.509 They do

have like a dragon-vibish look. 165 00:07:23.110 --> 00:07:27.399 Though. Wait a minute. Grasshoppers, they're often eating grass and 166 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:30.240 they hop. Descriptive. That's two that we know of that 167 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:31.120 are very descriptive. 168 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:34.660 I bet you that your official name for a grasshopper 169 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:36.410 has neither of those two in it. 170 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:37.160 It's true. 171 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:37.959 It's orthoptera. 172 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:42.100 So there. 173 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:43.519 What's wrong with you guys? 174 00:07:43.579 --> 00:07:48.019 I know. So who knew that bugs had an official definition? 175 00:07:48.430 --> 00:07:51.189 It's the first I've learned of this. I'm delighted to 176 00:07:51.250 --> 00:07:54.329 be enlightened this way. And I notice you have tattoos 177 00:07:54.389 --> 00:07:56.709 on your body, but don't tell me that they're what 178 00:07:56.730 --> 00:07:57.129 you study. 179 00:07:57.470 --> 00:07:59.550 I have a dragonfly, which is what I study. But 180 00:07:59.569 --> 00:08:02.170 I also have, well, I have a bug, a true, oh, 181 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:04.470 I have a true bug. I have a hemiptera right here. 182 00:08:04.490 --> 00:08:05.230 Oh, true bug, okay. 183 00:08:05.250 --> 00:08:08.029 With a sucking mouth part, because it's a sucking mouth part. 184 00:08:08.329 --> 00:08:10.569 And then I have a tiny rat flea that's wearing 185 00:08:10.589 --> 00:08:14.250 a circus hat and riding on a penny farthing right here. 186 00:08:14.889 --> 00:08:16.149 And none of those lick. 187 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:19.649 And none of those are lickers, yeah. Got you. 188 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:23.680 What accounts for, even though they're all different, from each other, 189 00:08:23.699 --> 00:08:26.480 so I don't mean to say they're the same, but 190 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:31.029 they're very different from us. What makes them so successful 191 00:08:31.550 --> 00:08:31.870 on Earth? 192 00:08:32.820 --> 00:08:36.519 Well, part of their success is the time. So they've 193 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:39.419 been around for a really long time. Flying insects have 194 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:42.120 been around for 400 million years. So they've had a 195 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:45.399 lot of time to rapidly radiate into all the different 196 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:46.159 niches on Earth. 197 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:48.620 So they just predate dinosaurs. 198 00:08:48.899 --> 00:08:50.799 Yeah, predate by quite a bit. 199 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:51.879 Oh, by 100 million years, yeah. 200 00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:53.639 Yeah, by quite a bit. Like none of the cool 201 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:56.320 dinosaurs that you might see on the fourth floor, they 202 00:08:56.340 --> 00:08:58.899 weren't even on the scene yet when dragonflies were already flying. 203 00:08:58.940 --> 00:09:01.620 The first to fly, so they were able to kind 204 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:02.340 of conquer that. 205 00:09:02.570 --> 00:09:04.149 Dragonflies are OG flyers? 206 00:09:04.269 --> 00:09:04.690 OG. 207 00:09:04.950 --> 00:09:05.590 They're the OGs. 208 00:09:05.629 --> 00:09:06.470 Wow. 209 00:09:06.529 --> 00:09:09.070 Yeah, before birds, before bats, before pterosaurs. 210 00:09:09.429 --> 00:09:14.549 So you realize in the sci-fi novel Dune, they've got, 211 00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:17.580 it's another planet, of course, and everything's different, and they're 212 00:09:17.659 --> 00:09:23.700 flying machines whose wings duplicate what a dragonfly wings do. 213 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:28.519 So it's not a rotocopter, and it's not an airfoil, 214 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.649 but they look like dragonflies. So he must have been 215 00:09:31.669 --> 00:09:33.230 very impressed with them, just as you are. 216 00:09:33.809 --> 00:09:37.320 I mean, it's the original design, right? It's the bow plan, 217 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:41.580 the template, right? Most insect wings follow the same idea. 218 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:45.159 There's something slightly different that dragonflies and damselflies do with 219 00:09:45.179 --> 00:09:47.379 the way that their muscles attach to their wings inside 220 00:09:47.419 --> 00:09:49.460 of their body. But in general, the wings are the same. 221 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:51.940 The forewing kind of has air that passes over it. 222 00:09:52.309 --> 00:09:54.370 It goes and it affects the wind that passes over 223 00:09:54.429 --> 00:09:54.990 the hind wing. 224 00:09:55.269 --> 00:09:57.629 And what were you doing just before you arrived at 225 00:09:57.649 --> 00:09:58.309 my office here? 226 00:09:58.809 --> 00:10:00.700 Oh, we were looking at dragonflies. brains. 227 00:10:00.750 --> 00:10:04.720 Brains. How big are their brains compared to their bodies? 228 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:06.860 So you know like when you look at a dragonfly, 229 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:10.340 their head just looks like giant eyes? That's kind of 230 00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:12.940 the story. So their eyes take up almost everything, and 231 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:15.279 then they have a teeny, teeny, tiny brain. So they 232 00:10:15.299 --> 00:10:17.740 have a mushroom body, which we think is for memory, 233 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:20.049 so they can remember some things. Then they have a 234 00:10:20.149 --> 00:10:22.970 tiny central cortex. And then most of their head is 235 00:10:22.990 --> 00:10:27.230 just optic globes because they're highly visual predators. So seeing 236 00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:29.509 is the biggest important part of what they do. 237 00:10:29.889 --> 00:10:33.379 And, I mean, what can they remember? Like, can they remember, you. 238 00:10:33.340 --> 00:10:33.679 Know what I mean? 239 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:35.799 Are they like, I can remember what I ate for lunch? 240 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:39.059 Or are they like, I can remember, like, my family's story? 241

00:10:39.500 --> 00:10:42.539 Yeah, that's a good question. We think maybe what if 242 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.580 you were territorial and you had to remember where your 243 00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:47.679 territory was? Would your brain be bigger? 244 00:10:47.710 --> 00:10:47.779 Yeah. 245 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:50.549 Than if you weren't territorial, because some are territorial and 246 00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:53.679 some are not, or some never leave the pond from 247 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:56.700 which they emerge, and some migrate across the ocean. So 248 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:00.220 if you're migratory, would your brain be bigger than ones 249 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.080 that never leave the area where they're born? 250 00:11:02.419 --> 00:11:05.480 So the eyes of these flying insects are completely different 251 00:11:05.659 --> 00:11:10.440 from human eyes optically, right? And famously, they're portrayed as, 252 00:11:10.460 --> 00:11:14.490 in cartoons, I guess, that's where I get my entomology from, 253 00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:17.940 where they're looking through and you see like 100 versions 254 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:19.940 of whatever it is they're looking at. They've seen it 255 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:22.440 for house flies and dragonflies. Do they have the same 256 00:11:22.460 --> 00:11:22.940 kind of eyes? 257 00:11:23.379 --> 00:11:26.000 Yeah, they're basically the same idea, although the number of 258 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:29.090 omatidia varies. There's an omatidia, which has a lens and 259 00:11:29.110 --> 00:11:32.429 it has photoreceptor cells. And there are lots of those 260 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:34.509 little images, but we think that they get stitched together 261 00:11:34.590 --> 00:11:37.230 in the brain and kind of make one composite image 262 00:11:37.250 --> 00:11:38.169 that probably they're seeing. 263 00:11:38.330 --> 00:11:40.129 Is that the same for butterflies and moths? 264 00:11:40.529 --> 00:11:43.019 We think it's pretty much the same across insects, but 265 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:45.960 the difference is, is that Some insects that have invested 266 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.250 a lot in sight, like praying mantises, that's one. Dragonflies 267 00:11:49.289 --> 00:11:52.220 are another. Their vision is probably better than a butterfly 268 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:52.620 or a moth. 269 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:57.779 And these insects also have eyes that sort of stick out. 270 00:11:57.899 --> 00:12:01.820 Does that mean they see top and bottom at the 271 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:02.600 same time? 272 00:12:02.620 --> 00:12:06.110 No, that's true. That's such a good observation because the 273 00:12:06.230 --> 00:12:08.779 shape of the eye and the way that the ommatidia, 274 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:13.070 which are the lens plus the photoreceptor, the way that 275 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:16.289 they kind of project out, stick out, that actually affects 276 00:12:16.529 --> 00:12:18.789 whether they can see above them, a little bit below them, 277 00:12:18.830 --> 00:12:21.389 a little bit behind them. So dragonfly eyes are really 278 00:12:21.450 --> 00:12:23.730 globular and that allows them to see a little bit 279 00:12:23.769 --> 00:12:25.990 behind them in case there's a predator coming or there's 280 00:12:26.129 --> 00:12:28.870 food or a mate. And they can see out laterally 281 00:12:28.889 --> 00:12:30.350 and they can see in front of them and a 282 00:12:30.370 --> 00:12:33.210 little bit above them. Except for like, they do something 283 00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:35.330 with sex that's a little bit weird and males grab 284 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:37.750 the female behind the back of her head. And when 285 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:40.690 he does so, sometimes he steps on her ommatidia. So 286 00:12:40.730 --> 00:12:43.090 she loses a lot of her vision in the back 287 00:12:43.129 --> 00:12:43.669 part of her head. 288 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:46.710 What? And that's built into their process? 289 00:12:46.730 --> 00:12:48.110 That's what they do. Yeah. 290 00:12:48.389 --> 00:12:51.129 What is the evolutionary purpose of doing that? 291 00:12:51.590 --> 00:12:55.809 Well, if you hold on to her, then she doesn't 292 00:12:55.830 --> 00:12:58.919 fly away from him, and then he can ensure paternity. 293 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.320 Got you. So getting pregnant has higher evolutionary value than 294 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:04.440 losing some of your sight. 295 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:04.740 Yeah. 296 00:13:05.019 --> 00:13:07.919 In the back, I think. Because not everything is good. 297 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:08.460 Yeah. 298 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:11.980 It just... It just has to be less bad than 299 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:12.539 something else. 300 00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:13.360 Right, right, right. 301 00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:15.779 If your fitness is even a tiny bit higher because 302 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:19.299 you pass more genes on for the next generation selection. 303 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:21.259 Yeah, it'll accumulate. 304 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:24.470 So you can tell when a dragonfly is female because 305 00:13:24.610 --> 00:13:27.570 she's the one that's always like turning around fully to 306 00:13:27.610 --> 00:13:28.690 see what's happening. 307 00:13:32.129 --> 00:13:34.190 It is sad that old gals sometimes the back of 308 00:13:34.230 --> 00:13:35.649 their eyes are really busted up. 309 00:13:35.789 --> 00:13:37.629 When I woke up this morning, I didn't think this 310 00:13:37.649 --> 00:13:39.379 is what I'd be talking about. 311 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.080 Also, I didn't think I would have an emotional response 312 00:13:42.100 --> 00:13:45.120 to this, but I feel really bad and weird for 313 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:47.179 old gal dragonflies. 314 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:49.980 The matriarch is blind. Yeah, exactly. 315 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:53.899 Here's a creepy summer story for you. The new world screwworm, 316 00:13:54.250 -->

00:13:58.669 a flesh-eating fly larva eliminated from the U.S. decades ago, 317 00:13:59.149 --> 00:14:02.110 has now been confirmed in four cases in Texas and 318 00:14:02.250 --> 00:14:05.919 New Mexico. But Depending on where you get your news, 319 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.149 the story can feel like a contained scientific response, a 320 00:14:09.210 --> 00:14:13.570 government failure, or the beginning of something much more alarming. 321 00:14:13.990 --> 00:14:17.190 With more than 100 outlets covering the story, the tone 322 00:14:17.250 --> 00:14:21.610 shifts noticeably depending on who's reporting it. That's exactly why 323 00:14:21.649 --> 00:14:24.350 we use ground news, because it lets us zoom out 324 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:28.980 and analyse the coverage as a whole. Left-leaning coverage tends 325 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:31.820 to frame the outbreak as a story of political failure. 326 00:14:32.169 --> 00:14:36.409 while right-leaning coverage cast it as an urgent crisis requiring 327 00:14:36.490 --> 00:14:41.600 aggressive action. Same story, same facts, but two different slants. 328 00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:45.159 It's exactly this kind of context that's kept us partnering 329 00:14:45.179 --> 00:14:49.320 with Ground News for years. Ground News' app and website 330 00:14:49.580 --> 00:14:52.830 give us a data-driven approach to reading the news by 331 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:57.360 pulling articles from over 50,000 sources worldwide in one place 332 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:01.750 and breaking down bias, credibility and ownership so you understand 333 00:15:01.809 --> 00:15:05.570 not just the headline, but the forces behind it. It 334 00:15:05.629 --> 00:15:08.759 also highlights stories you might be missing with their blind 335 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.080 spot feed. Stories that get heavy attention from one part 336 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.529 of the media while others largely ignore them. If that's 337 00:15:15.669 --> 00:15:17.950 the kind of world you want to live in, you 338 00:15:17.970 --> 00:15:22.250 can get the same unlimited Vantage plan we use for 339 00:15:22.250 --> 00:15:27.500 40% off at ground.news.com or by scanning the QR code 340 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:28.519 on the screen. 341 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:32.980 So if they go back 400 million years, the Cambrian 342 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:36.779 explosion of life is not that much earlier than that. 343 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:39.980 150 million years or so? So when I look at insects, 344 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:45.429 they all look so different from one another. What is 345 00:15:45.590 --> 00:15:49.809 true among them that's been evolutionarily duplicated in all the insects? 346 00:15:50.429 --> 00:15:52.409 Well, really, it's not that it's duplicated. It's that there 347 00:15:52.450 --> 00:15:54.850 is a single origin, a single ancestor, and they just 348 00:15:54.970 --> 00:15:57.970 all are descendants. And that, so they all share the 349 00:15:58.009 --> 00:15:58.769 same things. 350 00:15:58.870 --> 00:16:01.490 Of course, but somebody's going to have the bug eyes first. 351 00:16:01.769 --> 00:16:04.210 And then does that give all the bug eyes? Or 352 00:16:04.230 --> 00:16:07.409 did eyes evolve separately to be similar? 353 00:16:08.029 --> 00:16:09.549 No, we think that there's a single origin. 354 00:16:09.570 --> 00:16:11.389 Convergent evolution, I think you guys call that. 355 00:16:11.649 --> 00:16:13.700 Yeah, but I think there's a single origin for eyes, 356 00:16:13.740 --> 00:16:16.620 a single origin for wings. And so insects in general 357 00:16:16.679 --> 00:16:19.139 have a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. They all 358 00:16:19.179 --> 00:16:22.799 have that. The abdomen in general has 10 segments, although. 359 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:25.299 Oh, so they're doing a 10-pack. 360 00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:28.539 Doing a 10-pack. The common ancestor all had a head, 361 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:30.960 a thorax, an abdomen, and six legs. 362 00:16:32.059 --> 00:16:32.320 Got it. 363 00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:35.960 Yeah, the basal hexapods, which are the closest relatives... to 364 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.600 dragonflies and damselflies, they had no wings. They never evolved them. 365 00:16:39.509 --> 00:16:42.529 And then at some point 400 million years ago, boom, wings. 366 00:16:43.730 --> 00:16:45.210 Wow. Boom! 367 00:16:45.250 --> 00:16:48.480 I think that was, I believe that was the sound 368 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:48.899 it made. 369 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:49.919 Pop! 370 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.879 I got wings. But you have to learn how to fly. 371 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:55.480 I know. That must be like a real head trip 372 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:58.330 when you're like, suddenly I have these things. What do 373 00:16:58.350 --> 00:16:59.190 they do? 374 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:01.690 I think they were really, what we think is that 375 00:17:01.730 --> 00:17:03.830 they were not good flyers in the beginning. Because the 376 00:17:03.909 --> 00:17:06.170 ones at first, like the sky was empty, right? So 377 00:17:06.190 --> 00:17:07.900 you could be as big as you want. There was 378 00:17:07.940 --> 00:17:10.410 nothing else really hunting you except for each other. So 379 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:12.670 the first ones that flew were really large. Each wing 380 00:17:12.710 --> 00:17:16.089 was like 37 centimeters. They were pretty big. And they 381 00:17:16.109 --> 00:17:17.890 were really clumsy. They had really stiff wings. And they 382 00:17:17.910 --> 00:17:20.990 were just kind of like probably not great. But then 383 00:17:21.269 --> 00:17:24.660 as the sky filled up with other things, then wings 384 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:27.019 tended to get a lot smaller. And there's a bunch 385 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:30.140 of different parts of the wings for fast flight, for 386 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.099 maneuverable flight, for aerodynamics. 387 00:17:32.460 --> 00:17:33.519 And for

hovering. 388 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:34.440 Yeah, and for hovering. 389 00:17:34.740 --> 00:17:35.509 Because dragonflies hover. 390 00:17:36.220 --> 00:17:38.579 Yeah, I mean, they're not as good as hoverflies or 391 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:41.740 for some other– there are some– for the pesky entomologist 392 00:17:41.769 --> 00:17:44.049 assistant to this, they'll say they're not as good at 393 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:46.289 hovering as some other things, but they can stay in 394 00:17:46.430 --> 00:17:48.190 one spot for a little while. 395 00:17:48.210 --> 00:17:49.509 Right, right. 396 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:53.630 And then is something like crickets that can't fly– Well, 397 00:17:53.650 --> 00:17:54.319 crickets can fly. 398 00:17:54.339 --> 00:17:55.759 They just more like glide. They do like a little 399 00:17:55.779 --> 00:17:57.039 hop and they kind of glide. 400 00:17:57.099 --> 00:17:57.480 Right. 401 00:17:57.619 --> 00:18:00.859 So is that just because, like, is that like they 402 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:04.759 started with that evolutionary thing, but then they just didn't 403 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:08.140 go forward with it? They were like, we don't really 404 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:09.740 need that model. Yeah. 405 00:18:09.779 --> 00:18:13.019 I mean, they have the ingredients in the kitchen, right? 406 00:18:13.059 --> 00:18:16.069 They have the tools in the toolbox, but they're really 407 00:18:16.109 --> 00:18:18.910 focused on jumping. Dragonflies are going everywhere. They're going around 408 00:18:18.930 --> 00:18:21.859 the whole globe. So their wings are kind of designed 409 00:18:21.900 --> 00:18:22.859 for long-distance flight. 410 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:26.220 Wait a minute. You're saying they got big because no 411 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:27.710 one was in the air to eat them, like a 412 00:18:27.769 --> 00:18:29.329 bird or something? 413 00:18:29.369 --> 00:18:31.509 Well, so there's a couple reasons why we think they 414 00:18:31.529 --> 00:18:33.329 got big. But the reason why they were able to 415 00:18:33.369 --> 00:18:36.069 be big and clumsy was because there was nothing else 416 00:18:36.250 --> 00:18:37.380 in there related to. 417 00:18:37.619 --> 00:18:40.539 What's this I remember about, because there was a time 418 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:42.799 when there was much more oxygen in our air. And 419 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:45.430 insects breathe through their skin, right? Not skin. 420 00:18:45.750 --> 00:18:48.569 Well, they have little spiracles. They have little holes that 421 00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:50.650 open and close and let air go in. And we 422 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:52.880 used to think it was just that, like, high oxygen, 423 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:53.859 so they were bigger. 424 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:55.900 That's what I read, like, long ago. 425 00:18:56.099 --> 00:18:59.980 Well, people have even, like, reared dragonflies in high-oxygen environments, 426 00:19:00.220 --> 00:19:03.619 and they did

end up significantly bigger than if they 427 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:06.799 hadn't reared them in the high-oxygen environments. But recent work, just, like, 428 00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:10.099 hot off the presses this spring, not from our lab 429 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:15.200 but from collaborators in odontology, they showed that they actually 430 00:19:15.259 --> 00:19:18.549 have giant kind of air sacs in their body. They 431 00:19:18.609 --> 00:19:21.609 actually held air with them. And it really wasn't necessarily 432 00:19:21.650 --> 00:19:24.210 because the oxygen was really high that they were able 433 00:19:24.250 --> 00:19:26.069 to be big. It's that they actually were able to 434 00:19:26.130 --> 00:19:27.569 carry their own air with them. 435 00:19:28.069 --> 00:19:30.140 Oh, it's like a built-in oxygen tank. 436 00:19:30.279 --> 00:19:31.920 Yeah, they had their own iron lung. 437 00:19:32.259 --> 00:19:33.700 Oh, yeah, that's nice. 438 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:34.819 What did you call that field? 439 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:35.819 Odonatology. 440 00:19:36.259 --> 00:19:37.059 Odonata is? 441 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:39.859 That's dragonflies and damselflies. 442 00:19:39.880 --> 00:19:40.000 Yes. 443 00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:43.660 And so if you study odonata... You are an odontologist. 444 00:19:43.700 --> 00:19:43.920 Yes. 445 00:19:44.299 --> 00:19:46.059 And your field is odontology. 446 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:49.289 Got it. Yeah. I'd never heard of that before. 447 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:52.079 So that's nice. If you Google it, you often get 448 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:56.569 dentistry things. Because there's another word that's related to dentistry 449 00:19:56.589 --> 00:20:01.109 that sounds very similar. So just like etymology, which is words, 450 00:20:01.309 --> 00:20:04.009 and entomology are similar, that gets confused if you do 451 00:20:04.029 --> 00:20:09.380 a Google. And odontology and odonatology, you'll get those. Sometimes 452 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:11.579 you get hits for both. So be careful. 453 00:20:12.329 --> 00:20:14.430 Yeah, yeah, be careful when you're Googling. 454 00:20:14.490 --> 00:20:15.730 I will totally be careful next time. 455 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:17.509 You might end up thinking that insects have a lot 456 00:20:17.549 --> 00:20:17.950 of teeth. 457 00:20:18.509 --> 00:20:20.109 Or, look, you want to see a beautiful picture of 458 00:20:20.150 --> 00:20:22.130 a dragonfly, and then you get a picture of a 459 00:20:22.190 --> 00:20:25.109 root canal. You don't want that. You don't want that. 460 00:20:25.410 --> 00:20:29.809 So insects are all built on a basic model that 461 00:20:29.950 --> 00:20:33.309 apparently is highly successful. I mean, there are more insects 462 00:20:33.410 --> 00:20:35.099 in the world than any other kind of animal. 463 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:37.359 In terms of abundance, that's true. 464 00:20:37.460 --> 00:20:37.720 Yeah. 465 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:40.200 And in terms of number of species. Also true. 466 00:20:40.380 --> 00:20:43.210 Especially given how many species there are. That's the evidence 467 00:20:43.230 --> 00:20:43.890 of how successful. 468 00:20:44.529 --> 00:20:46.910 Yeah. I mean, there's around the same number of species 469 00:20:47.009 --> 00:20:49.859 of dragonflies and damselflies as there are all of mammals. 470 00:20:50.289 --> 00:20:52.250 So if I asked you to name five mammals. 471 00:20:52.269 --> 00:20:52.809 I don't like that. 472 00:20:53.009 --> 00:20:54.930 Well, I mean, it makes sense, though, because if you 473 00:20:54.970 --> 00:20:57.799 live in, I live in New York City, and I don't, like, 474 00:20:57.950 --> 00:21:00.700 ever run into, like, a fox or, like, you know, 475 00:21:00.779 --> 00:21:04.299 a capybara. But I do, on a daily basis, run 476 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:05.079 into insects. 477 00:21:05.339 --> 00:21:09.779 Yeah, you don't run into a capybara? I don't either. 478 00:21:10.099 --> 00:21:11.859 Both mammals. Both mammals, yes. 479 00:21:12.259 --> 00:21:14.599 You know, so the numbers kind of make sense because 480 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:17.119 they can infiltrate, like, every world. 481 00:21:17.509 --> 00:21:20.029 So insects as a branch in the tree of life. 482 00:21:21.049 --> 00:21:24.210 has the capacity to be highly fit in almost any 483 00:21:24.250 --> 00:21:25.289 environment it encounters. 484 00:21:25.609 --> 00:21:26.890 They're like gentrifiers. 485 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:31.480 They move in, they take over. 486 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:34.640 So I can move from the countryside into a city 487 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:35.880 and there are insects in the city. 488 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:38.299 Yeah, we have a lot of insects in New York City. 489 00:21:38.579 --> 00:21:40.500 Did any evolve here to be unique? 490 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:43.019 We have a couple of species that we think are unique, 491 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:45.380 like Manhattent. There's like a kind of ant. 492 00:21:45.390 --> 00:21:45.769 Manhattan ant? 493 00:21:46.019 --> 00:21:48.759 Yeah, Manhattan ant, which is a species that was described 494 00:21:48.819 --> 00:21:50.539 first here in New York City. 495 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:51.910 There's... Wait, wait, what, what? 496 00:21:52.289 --> 00:21:54.849 Yeah, what is it? Is it, well, I know, is it, like, 497 00:21:54.910 --> 00:21:57.609 really well-dressed? Is it stylish? 498 00:21:57.710 --> 00:21:59.710 Is it, like, yeah. It wears a ball cap a 499 00:21:59.730 --> 00:22:01.150 lot and reads the New York Times. 500 00:22:01.710 --> 00:22:04.089 Does it know when to wear black? You know. 501 00:22:04.109 --> 00:22:05.730 It is black, actually. 502 00:22:05.809 --> 00:22:07.769 Is it black? Okay, that makes sense. Absolutely. 503 00:22:07.829 --> 00:22:09.990 It's good for all seasons. I just feel like when 504 00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:13.119 they're wearing a black, then, like, no matter what other 505 00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:14.819

sex they're around. Yeah, totally. 506 00:22:14.839 --> 00:22:17.019 Is that mostly in Central Park, or is it? 507 00:22:17.380 --> 00:22:19.279 No, there's, I mean, you could just walk right down 508 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:22.079 the street and there's pavement ants that are having battles 509 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.400 on the street. There's pavement ants that actually fight each other. 510 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:27.940 You can see dragonflies flying up Fifth Avenue. I mean, 511 00:22:27.980 --> 00:22:31.930 this city is actually full of little bits of green space, right? 512 00:22:31.970 --> 00:22:34.569 Whether it's a park, you know, like a little bits 513 00:22:34.609 --> 00:22:37.009 of flowers that you have on your stoop or a tree. 514 00:22:37.329 --> 00:22:40.930 So I used to host a program for PBS called 515 00:22:40.990 --> 00:22:44.190 Nova Science Now, a spinoff of Nova. And one of 516 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:47.049 our episodes, we went to the High Line before it 517 00:22:47.069 --> 00:22:52.250 was heavily developed, the High Line had been abandoned for decades. 518 00:22:53.690 --> 00:22:58.319 It was just railroad tracks up there, okay? In Manhattan. 519 00:22:58.819 --> 00:23:01.440 And we go up there, there's like grass, and there 520 00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:04.880 are insects. And I found a praying mantis. And I'm thinking, 521 00:23:05.329 --> 00:23:09.529 how does a praying mantis get into Manhattan? Does it 522 00:23:09.609 --> 00:23:12.730 hitch a ride on the ferry? Does it walk across 523 00:23:12.769 --> 00:23:15.089 the bridge? Manhattan is an island. 524 00:23:15.390 --> 00:23:17.670 It can do all of those things. It can also, 525 00:23:18.789 --> 00:23:21.750 they can glide with their wings. They can cling to 526 00:23:21.890 --> 00:23:24.450 a bit of bark and go across the Hudson River. 527 00:23:25.190 --> 00:23:26.519 They can hitch a ride on my car when I 528 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:29.259 drive in from New Jersey. Like insects are highly mobile. 529 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:31.680 And even though we think of praying mantises, they're not 530 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:33.640 like long distance flyers. They get around. 531 00:23:33.900 --> 00:23:36.880 Well, and do they not miss their families? You know 532 00:23:36.900 --> 00:23:38.819 what I mean? Are they like always like cutting and 533 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:40.900 running and then just like going to Manhattan? 534 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:42.839 I think about that all the time. If a fly 535 00:23:42.900 --> 00:23:45.160 gets into my car and then I don't get it 536 00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:48.970 out for another hundred miles, then it gets out. That's sad. 537 00:23:49.029 --> 00:23:52.230 Yeah, you're like, you live in Pennsylvania now, buddy. 538 00:23:52.269 --> 00:23:54.190 Not a lot of insects get to see Pennsylvania. Is 539 00:23:54.210 --> 00:23:57.130 that what you say to them? I say that sometimes 540 00:23:57.170 --> 00:23:59.289 when I'm bringing insects back from the field and I'm 541 00:23:59.329 --> 00:24:01.609 bringing them back to this building. I say, you know, 542 00:24:01.849 --> 00:24:03.930 not everybody gets to see New York. That's to make 543 00:24:03.970 --> 00:24:07.509 her feel better before she puts the pin through its thorax. 544 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:09.490 And murders them. Yeah, not a lot of insects get 545 00:24:09.539 --> 00:24:12.799 to see New York, right? There's a lot of taxa 546 00:24:12.819 --> 00:24:15.200 that have been in the northeast and species that have 547 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:18.180 been in the northeast for a really long time. And 548 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.779 I mean like millions and millions of years. Some of 549 00:24:21.819 --> 00:24:24.940 them persist. Some of them we have extirpated. There's a 550 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:27.259 lot of things that used to be in Manhattan that 551 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:28.920 are not there now because of us. 552 00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:30.660 Extirpated. 553 00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:31.180 Ouch. 554 00:24:32.109 --> 00:24:34.869 So when we build environments like the ones that we 555 00:24:34.930 --> 00:24:36.329 live in, things that end up being. 556 00:24:36.349 --> 00:24:36.650 Like cities. 557 00:24:36.950 --> 00:24:39.589 Like cities. Things that do well there are things that 558 00:24:39.670 --> 00:24:42.650 used to live on cliff faces, that used to live 559 00:24:42.950 --> 00:24:45.150 in areas where there was lots of impervious or hard surfaces. 560 00:24:45.170 --> 00:24:47.069 Like the rock doves, which we call pigeons. 561 00:24:47.250 --> 00:24:51.130 Like rock doves, like pavement ants. Pavement ants didn't evolve. 562 00:24:51.210 --> 00:24:51.990 That's a thing. 563 00:24:52.009 --> 00:24:52.190 Yeah. 564 00:24:52.210 --> 00:24:53.190 It's called pavement ants. 565 00:24:53.269 --> 00:24:54.349 Prehistoric pavement. 566 00:24:54.529 --> 00:24:57.450 Right? But probably they were just on like rocks. That's 567 00:24:57.470 --> 00:24:57.859 a kind of ant. 568 00:24:57.890 --> 00:24:58.990 Yeah, on rocks, right? 569 00:24:59.019 --> 00:24:59.130 Okay. 570 00:24:59.470 --> 00:25:02.339 We basically made a rocky environment that a lot of 571 00:25:03.339 --> 00:25:04.240 species like to live in. 572 00:25:04.539 --> 00:25:07.099 And which ones have we extirpated? 573 00:25:07.420 --> 00:25:10.000 There's a lot, actually. We probably don't even know all 574 00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:11.480 the ones that were here because it's not like when 575 00:25:11.500 --> 00:25:15.880 people were first settling in Manhattan, and this is millennia ago, 576 00:25:16.140 --> 00:25:19.799 they were keeping meticulous logs of biodiversity per se. And 577 00:25:19.819 --> 00:25:22.099 then when Manhattan was colonized, you know, I don't think 578 00:25:22.119 --> 00:25:25.680 people were either taking meticulous logs. There was the first entomologist, 579 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:31.109 Thomas Say, in North America. He actually

did keep records 580 00:25:31.170 --> 00:25:33.670 of all the things that were around, so because of that, 581 00:25:34.069 --> 00:25:36.450 we know that there are some cicadas that used to 582 00:25:36.490 --> 00:25:38.250 be here that are not here. We know that there's 583 00:25:38.529 --> 00:25:39.950 certain species that are no longer here. 584 00:25:42.019 --> 00:25:47.319 The cicadas, ironically, couldn't take the noise. It just felt 585 00:25:47.339 --> 00:25:50.160 like it was too much competition with what they were doing. 586 00:25:50.420 --> 00:25:52.960 They couldn't make it here, so they couldn't make it anywhere. 587 00:25:52.980 --> 00:25:54.640 They couldn't make it anywhere. 588 00:25:54.700 --> 00:25:56.519 You know, I've heard that story. 589 00:25:56.539 --> 00:25:58.309 Thank you, Frank Sinatra. 590 00:25:58.849 --> 00:25:59.569 I've heard that story. 591 00:25:59.849 --> 00:26:03.650 One of the more successful bugs in New York, and 592 00:26:03.930 --> 00:26:06.390 I won't have the right word, but cockroaches. Tell me about, 593 00:26:06.990 --> 00:26:07.990 so they live with us. 594 00:26:08.390 --> 00:26:08.990 Yeah. 595 00:26:09.150 --> 00:26:13.359 They didn't create their own world. They are sharing our 596 00:26:13.420 --> 00:26:16.009 world and bedbugs, okay? 597 00:26:16.190 --> 00:26:16.369 Yeah. 598 00:26:16.759 --> 00:26:18.859 So is this adaptive, I guess? 599 00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:22.779 There's only a tiny fraction of cockroaches that live with humans, right? 600 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:23.660 And most of them. 601 00:26:23.980 --> 00:26:25.640 Don't tell me that that's only a tiny fraction of 602 00:26:25.660 --> 00:26:26.259 all the cockroaches. 603 00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:29.079 Because it feels like all the cockroaches. You know what 604 00:26:29.220 --> 00:26:31.809 I mean? When you walk down the street to Manhattan 605 00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:34.369 at night, you're like, they're literally all here. 606 00:26:34.630 --> 00:26:38.049 No, there's over 7,000 species in the order Bladodia, which 607 00:26:38.089 --> 00:26:40.890 are cockroaches, and the social cockroaches, which are termites. Those 608 00:26:40.930 --> 00:26:43.470 are all just one order. And most of them live 609 00:26:43.549 --> 00:26:46.049 outside of the human condition. They're living in forests and 610 00:26:46.089 --> 00:26:50.329 deserts and rainforests. So there's just a small number that 611 00:26:50.369 --> 00:26:53.089 have adapted to live inside of dwellings or to live 612 00:26:53.450 --> 00:26:57.230 with garbage and refuse. It's not us. It's the sewage, right? 613 00:26:57.250 --> 00:26:59.559 Like we make garbage. We make refuse. 614 00:26:59.579 --> 00:27:02.099 It's true. They actually don't want to bother you. 615 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:03.000 Yeah, it's not us. 616 00:27:03.099 --> 00:27:05.660 You turn on the lights, they scurry. They scurry. 617 00:27:05.700 --> 00:27:07.710 They scurry. And the big ones, like you guys have 618 00:27:07.730 --> 00:27:08.170 the big ones? 619 00:27:08.190 --> 00:27:08.329 Yeah. 620 00:27:08.349 --> 00:27:10.930 The big, we call them water bugs. 621 00:27:11.190 --> 00:27:13.210 Well, they're not water bugs. Because it's actually, that's a 622 00:27:13.230 --> 00:27:16.349 classic landlord thing. They'll tell you you have water bugs 623 00:27:16.369 --> 00:27:18.289 so that you don't freak out and make them spray. 624 00:27:18.589 --> 00:27:22.309 But water bugs is actually a bug. It's a totally 625 00:27:22.349 --> 00:27:23.349 different insect. 626 00:27:24.369 --> 00:27:26.490 A water bug is a completely different insect from a cockroach? 627 00:27:26.529 --> 00:27:26.809 Yeah. 628 00:27:27.069 --> 00:27:28.910 So if your landlord tells you that you have water bugs. 629 00:27:29.009 --> 00:27:31.349 It squashes under my foot in exactly the same way. 630 00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:36.400 Also, are all landlords entomologists? And I didn't know. 631 00:27:36.579 --> 00:27:39.259 I have had landlords. When I had cockroaches, the landlord 632 00:27:39.299 --> 00:27:41.079 told me those are water bugs. I was like, surely 633 00:27:41.099 --> 00:27:43.730 you just. I am an entomologist. I know this is 634 00:27:43.769 --> 00:27:45.509 not a water bug. It's not in Hemiptera. 635 00:27:45.589 --> 00:27:45.970 Hello. 636 00:27:46.349 --> 00:27:48.250 It's in Bladodia. And he said, how do you know 637 00:27:48.289 --> 00:27:49.349 you didn't bring them from work? 638 00:27:50.359 --> 00:27:51.059 Ooh. I know. 639 00:27:51.150 --> 00:27:53.059 And I was like, I don't actually know. 640 00:27:53.099 --> 00:27:54.579 He makes an excellent point. 641 00:27:54.619 --> 00:27:56.359 Yeah, because it's also possible. 642 00:27:56.460 --> 00:27:58.660 Plus, if you go to her section of the museum, 643 00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.900 there's signs that say, no exterminators. We do. 644 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:06.220 We actually, we do exterminate in some parts, but we 645 00:28:06.289 --> 00:28:08.430 actually have certain rooms that we don't exterminate because we 646 00:28:08.450 --> 00:28:12.650 have live, intentionally, live insects in there. The big cockroaches 647 00:28:12.670 --> 00:28:15.359 we have, though, they are not native to here. The 648 00:28:15.460 --> 00:28:17.259 ones that are the tiny little guys. 649 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:19.700 I grew up with really big ones in Palm Springs, California, 650 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:23.940 in the desert. And they would sometimes, like, take flight 651 00:28:23.980 --> 00:28:24.349 a little. 652 00:28:24.609 --> 00:28:26.589 Yeah, the heat. If it's hot, even the ones that 653 00:28:26.630 --> 00:28:30.410 we have here, Paraponida americana, they'll fly. But they're actually 654 00:28:30.690 --> 00:28:32.910 originally from Africa. And they were brought over on the 655 00:28:32.930 --> 00:28:37.440 transatlantic slave trade in large numbers. So they're actually, like, 656 00:28:37.529 --> 00:28:40.069

they're adapted to be in hot environments. And when it's hot, 657 00:28:40.130 --> 00:28:42.369 they'll fly. So sometimes people will be really freaked out. 658 00:28:42.410 --> 00:28:43.910 This is like one more. New fear unlocked. 659 00:28:43.930 --> 00:28:46.029 I don't like roaches enough. Flying roaches. 660 00:28:46.309 --> 00:28:47.150 New fear unlocked. 661 00:28:47.210 --> 00:28:48.609 It's traumatizing. 662 00:28:48.789 --> 00:28:49.670 Just stop. 663 00:28:49.869 --> 00:28:50.069 Yeah. 664 00:28:50.109 --> 00:28:52.269 If you were like not, like, you should care about 665 00:28:52.289 --> 00:28:54.569 climate change. We all should. But if you were like, 666 00:28:54.670 --> 00:28:58.079 I'm on the fence about it, then as it gets warmer, 667 00:28:58.380 --> 00:28:59.759 cockroaches will take the skies. 668 00:28:59.880 --> 00:29:03.519 Let me go there. Okay. Two things. First, I heard tell. 669 00:29:04.369 --> 00:29:07.569 that the world population of insects is on the decline. 670 00:29:08.490 --> 00:29:12.589 My first inquiry with you, does that relate at all 671 00:29:13.430 --> 00:29:19.200 to whatever impact climate change has on the world population 672 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.519 of insects, on bugs, and do they migrate? Do they 673 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:27.500 hang out? Do they spring forth? Are these connected? 674 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:30.160 So insects, we think, are declining at a rate that 675 00:29:30.180 --> 00:29:34.769 we've never seen before. People after the Industrial Revolution, there's 676 00:29:34.789 --> 00:29:37.250 stuff in the literature that said, hey, I'm not sure, 677 00:29:37.289 --> 00:29:39.470 but I think this might have a negative impact on insects. 678 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:43.740 And fast forward to the early 2010s, people started doing 679 00:29:43.779 --> 00:29:48.000 studies that showed that populations of a particular butterfly had 680 00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:51.680 dropped by 70%. Populations of this other species dropped by 681 00:29:51.720 --> 00:29:52.250 big numbers. 682 00:29:52.490 --> 00:29:53.869 Bug zappers and raid spray. 683 00:29:54.390 --> 00:29:56.450 They're doing their job. 684 00:29:56.470 --> 00:29:57.950 Oh, my gosh. Are they really? 685 00:29:58.049 --> 00:29:58.210 No. 686 00:29:58.309 --> 00:30:03.059 No. You know what it is? It's us. We change 687 00:30:03.099 --> 00:30:07.099 the habitat. We increase the temperature. We have now extreme weather. 688 00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:10.890 There's flooding. There's increased fire. All of those things are 689 00:30:10.930 --> 00:30:13.960 things that insects didn't evolve with, right? So we know 690 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:16.420 that insects are declining at a rate that's faster than 691 00:30:16.660 --> 00:30:19.559 we've ever seen. But the problem is, is that all 692 00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:22.900 life that we think about, with the exception of maybe fish, right, 693 00:30:23.460 --> 00:30:28.349 it came after insects, right?

So plants, they need insects 694 00:30:28.369 --> 00:30:32.289 to pollinate them. Birds eat insects. Fish eat insects. You know, 695 00:30:32.309 --> 00:30:35.829 mammals eat insects. We eat insects. In the absence of insects. 696 00:30:35.869 --> 00:30:36.750 What did she just say? I know. 697 00:30:36.849 --> 00:30:40.299 I'm like, we eat insects? Well, there was a trend, 698 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:42.279 and maybe this is like leading to the kind, I 699 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:45.539 don't know, of like insect snacks as like because they 700 00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:46.980 have a high source of protein. 701 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:47.559 Yeah, man. 702 00:30:47.619 --> 00:30:48.920 What do you think of that trend? 703 00:30:49.099 --> 00:30:50.500 I heard tell they're high protein. 704 00:30:50.740 --> 00:30:53.089 Yeah, they are high protein, low fat, depending on what 705 00:30:53.109 --> 00:30:56.329 you're eating. The water bugs and the cockroaches are actually 706 00:30:56.369 --> 00:30:58.109 very fatty. So if you were going to skip one, 707 00:30:58.130 --> 00:30:58.970 I would skip those ones. 708 00:31:01.269 --> 00:31:02.470 Okay, thanks. 709 00:31:02.569 --> 00:31:04.029 I'm writing that down. 710 00:31:04.109 --> 00:31:08.029 I'm writing it down. Cockroach is not good for your diet. 711 00:31:08.049 --> 00:31:10.230 That's the one reason to not eat them, really. It's 712 00:31:10.289 --> 00:31:14.069 just about the calories. When you think about it, it's 713 00:31:14.390 --> 00:31:17.170 really about that. But I would say, like, my finger 714 00:31:17.230 --> 00:31:19.450 is on the pulse of tomorrow. I'm a young, hip, 715 00:31:19.650 --> 00:31:23.400 urban woman, and I think eating insects is cool. And 716 00:31:23.420 --> 00:31:24.279 people should all do it. 717 00:31:24.339 --> 00:31:27.660 Well, you're not concerned about us declining the population further 718 00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:29.029 by also eating them? 719 00:31:29.380 --> 00:31:31.269 I would not go eat street insects. I'm not going 720 00:31:31.289 --> 00:31:33.609 to go eat insects just that I go and collect 721 00:31:33.710 --> 00:31:36.769 on Fifth Avenue. People, when they rear insects for protein, 722 00:31:36.809 --> 00:31:39.549 for cricket cookies or whatever, they're doing it in the 723 00:31:39.589 --> 00:31:41.690 same way that we rear cattle. Farms, yeah. 724 00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:45.450 You just said cricket cookies, like it's next to the 725 00:31:45.509 --> 00:31:47.670 Oreos and the chocolate chip on the shelf. 726 00:31:47.730 --> 00:31:49.059 You're selling it at the bake sale. 727 00:31:49.099 --> 00:31:49.730 Shouldn't it be? 728 00:31:50.019 --> 00:31:50.880 Cricket cookies. 729 00:31:50.900 --> 00:31:51.920 Shouldn't it be? 730 00:31:52.019 --> 00:31:52.500 Okay. 731 00:31:53.039 --> 00:31:55.200 I confess, I've had sauteed crickets. 732 00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:56.359 It was good. 733 00:31:56.440 --> 00:31:57.119 It's popular. 734 00:31:57.140 -->

00:31:59.000 They're popular in Mexico, right? It's like a dish. 735 00:31:59.019 --> 00:32:00.579 I don't know. It was served to me once. 736 00:32:00.660 --> 00:32:01.619 Yeah. 737 00:32:01.740 --> 00:32:02.940 It tasted like chicken. 738 00:32:04.279 --> 00:32:05.279 They're like kind of nutty. 739 00:32:05.480 --> 00:32:05.720 No, no. 740 00:32:05.740 --> 00:32:07.920 Yeah, it tasted like a snack. I mean, just snack 741 00:32:08.019 --> 00:32:10.259 like you'd have at the bar. What I don't understand 742 00:32:10.359 --> 00:32:13.849 is we're not much different, other than the climate change 743 00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:16.309 part of this, we're not much different than we were 744 00:32:16.309 --> 00:32:20.069 100 years ago, moving into cities, taking over the landscape. 745 00:32:20.769 --> 00:32:23.759 Why are... Why is there extra loss of insects today? 746 00:32:24.180 --> 00:32:27.759 I think urbanization is increasing at a rate that's much 747 00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:28.829 different than it was 100 years ago. 748 00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:31.039 All that means is we are living on less and 749 00:32:31.099 --> 00:32:32.519 less of Earth's surface area. 750 00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:33.579 But we're expanding. 751 00:32:33.619 --> 00:32:35.740 Won't the insects like that? 752 00:32:35.819 --> 00:32:38.720 I think we're expanding, though, the amount of impervious surface, 753 00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:42.299 the amount of concrete, right? We're decreasing the amount of forest. 754 00:32:42.680 --> 00:32:44.789 We pollute the water. There's a lot of insects that 755 00:32:44.809 --> 00:32:47.930 are aquatic that dwell in fresh water. That kind of 756 00:32:47.990 --> 00:32:48.829 destroys their habitat. 757 00:32:48.849 --> 00:32:51.910 I was just recently driving. I forgot where. And I 758 00:32:51.930 --> 00:32:55.170 just noticed, I never thought to notice this before, I'm 759 00:32:55.230 --> 00:32:58.839 on a four-lane freeway going in one direction, there's a 760 00:32:58.900 --> 00:33:02.380 big divider, and then there's four lanes coming the other way, 761 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:04.779 and I'm just looking at the total surface area that 762 00:33:04.819 --> 00:33:05.740 that is. It's huge. 763 00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:08.200 It's huge. And the lights that go over it, because 764 00:33:08.220 --> 00:33:10.059 we're going to have lights so that we can drive 765 00:33:10.119 --> 00:33:12.180 at night, that negatively impacts on sex. 766 00:33:12.220 --> 00:33:12.420 Why? 767 00:33:12.970 --> 00:33:17.430 Well, there's insects eat less. Caterpillars eat less. Moths that communicate. 768 00:33:18.710 --> 00:33:22.220 They're flying kind of using the UV light to navigate with. 769 00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:26.420 Fireflies that communicate with each other at night. Light, bad. 770 00:33:26.839 --> 00:33:31.039 But aren't bug zappers evidence that we're smarter than insects? 771 00:33:31.220 --> 00:33:34.200 Because we know they're sensitive to UV. So let's make 772 00:33:34.220 --> 00:33:35.640 a UV light and then zap them. 773 00:33:36.059 --> 00:33:39.619 But we're dumber than we think, right? We shouldn't pat 774 00:33:39.640 --> 00:33:42.240 ourselves on the back because we designed those to get 775 00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:46.160 rid of mosquitoes and biting insects. And it actually, like 776 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:50.400 90% of what bug zappers kill are beneficial insects. They 777 00:33:50.420 --> 00:33:52.859 kill almost no mosquitoes. So you actually, there's no sense 778 00:33:52.920 --> 00:33:55.180 in buying it. So in a way, I kind of 779 00:33:55.220 --> 00:33:57.880 feel like that's kind of a lot. 780 00:33:57.900 --> 00:33:59.420 Why can't we just get the bug zapper and then 781 00:33:59.549 --> 00:34:00.480 collect it all and just eat it? 782 00:34:01.339 --> 00:34:06.940 And the bug zapper also barbecues them and turn them 783 00:34:06.980 --> 00:34:07.839 to a delicious treat. 784 00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:10.739 Yeah, just a little channel goes over to the grill. 785 00:34:11.260 --> 00:34:15.119 Yeah, in a way, maybe it kind of also fricassees 786 00:34:15.159 --> 00:34:16.780 them itself a little bit with their feet. 787 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:18.800 Yeah, it does a little sauté. 788 00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:21.179 A little fast barbecue. 789 00:34:21.219 --> 00:34:27.840 But also, we're so bad at killing the bugs that 790 00:34:27.989 --> 00:34:30.590 seem to be irritating everybody, like ticks. 791 00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:33.760 Oh, so yeah, so ticks are not bugs. They're arachnids. 792 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:36.159 It's not that we're bad at killing ticks. It's that 793 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:39.300 because of climate change, because of changing temperatures, ticks from 794 00:34:39.409 --> 00:34:42.239 other regions are moving and they're expanding their ranges. That's 795 00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:44.550 why we have the Lone Star tick here, for example, 796 00:34:44.590 --> 00:34:46.389 which is the one that causes a meat allergy. It 797 00:34:46.409 --> 00:34:49.369 can carry a pathogen that can cause a meat allergy. 798 00:34:50.190 --> 00:34:53.010 That's because of us. We changed the climate and now 799 00:34:53.050 --> 00:34:54.329 they've been able to move into our area. 800 00:34:54.349 --> 00:34:57.670 So we've created habitats that previously were hostile to some 801 00:34:57.909 --> 00:35:00.530 varieties of insects. Now they can hang out and do 802 00:35:00.550 --> 00:35:04.489 the backstroke And now we're affected by that because that 803 00:35:04.530 --> 00:35:05.570 was a place we created. 804 00:35:05.710 --> 00:35:10.010 Yeah, we created them. The catastrophe that we're seeing, we 805 00:35:10.070 --> 00:35:12.699 created and we're kind of keeping it going. We could 806 00:35:12.719 --> 00:35:16.159 make decisions that would actually have really beneficial impacts on 807 00:35:16.219 --> 00:35:19.769 insects that we should make. Why don't we make it? 808

00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:22.659 I can't just go past this because I know people 809 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:27.360 who've been bitten by the Lone Star tick. They can't. 810 00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:30.219 So it's not that they can't eat meat, apparently. They can't. 811 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.139 eat mammals, so they can eat chicken and fish, so 812 00:35:34.179 --> 00:35:37.280 I heard. You know what I think? I think vegetarians 813 00:35:37.380 --> 00:35:38.340 created this in the lab. 814 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:42.920 Yeah. They were like, what could we do? Alpha-gal, that's a. 815 00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:46.280 Yeah, but more like pescatarians created this in the lab, 816 00:35:46.300 --> 00:35:48.159 like a really specific subset. 817 00:35:49.340 --> 00:35:52.760 So I hear tell that in Martha's Vineyard, which is 818 00:35:52.780 --> 00:35:57.119 an island off of Cape Cod, a destination for the rich. 819 00:35:58.309 --> 00:36:00.840 There's an airport there. You take your private plane on 820 00:36:00.860 --> 00:36:01.380 to it. 821 00:36:01.389 --> 00:36:04.039 As one does. Famously, don't the Obamas go there? 822 00:36:04.139 --> 00:36:06.920 As one would do. I'm told that tick was so 823 00:36:06.980 --> 00:36:12.300 prevalent on that island that stores are now reducing their 824 00:36:12.340 --> 00:36:15.219 supply of meat for sale because no one's buying them. 825 00:36:16.659 --> 00:36:22.630 And restaurants have menus for those who are thusly affected. specifically. 826 00:36:22.650 --> 00:36:24.269 Maybe a cardiologist made this alphabet. 827 00:36:24.289 --> 00:36:25.809 I know, I was just gonna say, like, are these, 828 00:36:25.949 --> 00:36:28.530 maybe these ticks are out for our health? 829 00:36:28.550 --> 00:36:29.789 Yeah, they're a gift. 830 00:36:29.829 --> 00:36:33.409 You say reduce your red meat consumption, I mean. 831 00:36:33.510 --> 00:36:35.090 And nobody did it, and they're like, what could we do? 832 00:36:35.110 --> 00:36:37.449 And the cardiologist was like, let's import some of this 833 00:36:37.469 --> 00:36:39.179 stuff from, let's import the Lone Star. 834 00:36:39.639 --> 00:36:46.940 Nope, that's lame. Ready? Do you harbor questions about the universe? 835 00:36:48.199 --> 00:36:54.289 Some long-held bit of cosmic curiosity? lingering within you, or 836 00:36:54.329 --> 00:36:58.949 questions about anything at all, you can become a Patreon 837 00:36:59.030 --> 00:37:03.639 supporter of StarTalk. You have access to our exclusive question 838 00:37:03.679 --> 00:37:07.019 line on our website. Those are where we draw our 839 00:37:07.059 --> 00:37:10.480 questions for our Cosmic Society. Some of the most extreme 840 00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:14.139 objects in the universe. StarTalk is a work in progress 841 00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:18.469 where we... every month come up with some new way, 842 00:37:18.610 --> 00:37:22.050 some new idea, some new understanding of how to bring 843 00:37:22.090 --> 00:37:25.190 the universe down to earth. We could not do that 844 00:37:25.710 --> 00:37:30.289 without your support. Thank you. And as always, keep looking up. 845 00:37:30.909 --> 00:37:34.800 This drop in population, is it just habitat or is 846 00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:37.760 there other things that affect them? Are they not finding mates? 847 00:37:37.780 --> 00:37:40.159 There are a lot of ways you can drop a population. 848 00:37:40.429 --> 00:37:43.670 So population is just a single species. So it's true 849 00:37:43.710 --> 00:37:46.230 across all the species of insects that we've looked at, right? 850 00:37:46.710 --> 00:37:49.269 So what we think is that for some things, it's 851 00:37:49.670 --> 00:37:55.070 water pollution. And that means that they die, so they're 852 00:37:55.090 --> 00:37:58.360 not able to survive. For some things like fireflies, if 853 00:37:58.380 --> 00:38:00.780 it's light pollution, they can't actually see each other to 854 00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:03.440 find a mate, so they're not able to reproduce. It 855 00:38:03.460 --> 00:38:05.280 kind of varies depending on what the species is. 856 00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:08.010 That's why there are no fireflies in Times Square. I 857 00:38:08.030 --> 00:38:08.719 always wondered that. 858 00:38:09.070 --> 00:38:11.719 Yeah, there should be. I mean, they make these flashes, 859 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:13.760 and the flashes are species-specific. They need to be able 860 00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:15.619 to see each other so they can see the flashes 861 00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:16.920 to know which species to mate with. 862 00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:19.219 I grew up in the desert. We didn't have fireflies. 863 00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:21.460 And so then as an adult, when I was here 864 00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:24.239 in the summers, I was like, oh, my God, these 865 00:38:24.280 --> 00:38:27.199 are the coolest things I've ever seen. And still, in 866 00:38:27.219 --> 00:38:29.539 the summer, I look at them with such awe. 867 00:38:29.739 --> 00:38:30.860 They make light with their bum. 868 00:38:30.940 --> 00:38:35.599 I mean, it's incredible. Butt light, we call it. Butt light. 869 00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:41.809 You know, I heard that. Yeah, it's a summer tree. 870 00:38:42.449 --> 00:38:44.909 But yeah, I mean, we should all be kind of sad, right? 871 00:38:44.949 --> 00:38:47.429 The things that we think about when we think about summer, 872 00:38:47.949 --> 00:38:52.030 like fireflies or monarch butterflies, like those are declining at 873 00:38:52.170 --> 00:38:56.889 such alarming rates. Monarchs have decreased by like 90% since 1970. 874 00:38:56.889 --> 00:38:57.989 You know, when I was a kid, I saw them 875 00:38:58.010 --> 00:39:00.530 all the time. Now I hardly see any monarch butterflies. 876 00:39:00.550 --> 00:39:04.019 Yeah, it's us. We destroyed the habitat. They need milkweed. 877 00:39:04.079 --> 00:39:06.840 It's a specific plant that they've evolved to eat. And 878 00:39:06.880 -->

00:39:09.960 they have an arduous long migratory route that goes down 879 00:39:10.019 --> 00:39:12.960 to Mexico and back. And they get hit by cars 880 00:39:13.079 --> 00:39:16.500 and what have you. So, I mean, we're making, we've 881 00:39:16.539 --> 00:39:18.969 made decisions in the past and we're making decisions even 882 00:39:19.010 --> 00:39:21.210 right now that negatively impact insects. 883 00:39:21.349 --> 00:39:23.769 All right. So I got to, this is the 900 884 00:39:23.769 --> 00:39:24.809 pound gorilla in the room. 885 00:39:24.889 --> 00:39:25.130 Yeah. 886 00:39:25.150 --> 00:39:29.909 Okay. Some insects are prettier than others to the non-entomologist. 887 00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:35.070 You mean like head lice? That's a gorgeous one. I'm assuming. 888 00:39:35.170 --> 00:39:37.929 Neil is body shaming insects, by the way. I just 889 00:39:37.949 --> 00:39:41.730 want to say that for the record. He's like, yeah, 890 00:39:41.809 --> 00:39:43.849 gnats aren't looks maxing enough. 891 00:39:44.050 --> 00:39:47.010 This is the mean girl part of the Star Talk episode. 892 00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:51.539 Nobody doesn't like ladybugs. They're nice. It lands on you. 893 00:39:51.880 --> 00:39:53.460 It's not going to bite you or sting you or 894 00:39:53.500 --> 00:39:56.619 inject you with venom. Okay. And so I can list 895 00:39:56.699 --> 00:40:02.239 insects that emotionally we're cool with. Okay. More humans have 896 00:40:02.280 --> 00:40:07.119 died at the hands of mosquitoes than have ever died 897 00:40:07.179 --> 00:40:09.440 in all wars we have ever fought against each other. 898 00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:09.800 Yeah. 899 00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:16.380 If we could render mosquitoes extinct from this world, none 900 00:40:16.400 --> 00:40:19.699 of us would complain. What would you do as an entomologist? 901 00:40:20.099 --> 00:40:22.099 If by that you mean that we would get rid 902 00:40:22.159 --> 00:40:25.550 of a specific kind of Anopheles and a specific kind 903 00:40:25.590 --> 00:40:28.849 of Aedes, Aedes aegypti, those are the deadliest animals on 904 00:40:28.869 --> 00:40:32.909 the planet. Those are the ones that vector malaria, dengue, chikungunya, 905 00:40:32.969 --> 00:40:36.219 yellow fever. If we got rid of those two or 906 00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:40.460 three species complex, then yeah, I think that that would 907 00:40:40.500 --> 00:40:43.469 actually have immense help to the human population. 908 00:40:43.769 --> 00:40:45.610 While maintaining others. 909 00:40:45.630 --> 00:40:47.429 Yeah, there's thousands of other mosquitoes. 910 00:40:47.449 --> 00:40:48.530 So the bats have plenty to eat. 911 00:40:48.769 --> 00:40:51.360 Yeah. Bats, dragonflies, there's lots of things that eat mosquitoes. 912 00:40:51.380 --> 00:40:54.320 And there's thousands of species of mosquitoes. And so that 913 00:40:54.500 --> 00:40:57.900 live outside the human condition, they're not vectoring diseases that 914 00:40:57.940 --> 00:40:59.280 affect humans. Those guys get to survive. 915 00:40:59.300 --> 00:41:00.820 Do you feel like there's a way to do that? 916 00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:03.500 That like we can get rid of the bad ones and. 917 00:41:03.429 --> 00:41:05.469 Keep the good ones? They've been trying. So people have 918 00:41:05.610 --> 00:41:09.090 tried releasing sterile males. that are just shooting deads that 919 00:41:09.190 --> 00:41:12.489 have no ability to impregnate a female. They've tried it 920 00:41:12.510 --> 00:41:15.449 a couple different ways, one with sterile males that they 921 00:41:15.469 --> 00:41:18.610 were irradiated and one where they actually have a bacteria 922 00:41:18.989 --> 00:41:21.210 called Wolbachia that actually makes males. 923 00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:24.219 It's like a Drakkar Noir and the ladies just don't 924 00:41:24.239 --> 00:41:25.590 want to have anything to do with it. Is that 925 00:41:25.610 --> 00:41:26.199 what it is essentially? 926 00:41:26.219 --> 00:41:28.579 You know what it is? The Wolbachia makes it so that... 927 00:41:28.739 --> 00:41:33.380 The Wolbachia is transmitted by females. So the Wolbachia changes 928 00:41:33.460 --> 00:41:37.429 it so that males are... Basically, yeah, males are in very, 929 00:41:37.449 --> 00:41:41.190 very low numbers and only females survive. So females aren't fertilized. 930 00:41:41.210 --> 00:41:46.179 No eggs, no babies. They tried releasing dragonflies years ago. 931 00:41:47.090 --> 00:41:50.099 And dragonflies do eat mosquitoes in the juvenile stage and 932 00:41:50.139 --> 00:41:51.880 in the adult stage. But they don't like to breed. 933 00:41:51.900 --> 00:41:52.780 Juvenile, they're still in the water? 934 00:41:52.980 --> 00:41:53.179 Yeah. 935 00:41:53.539 --> 00:41:55.739 Juvenile mosquitoes and juvenile dragonflies. 936 00:41:55.760 --> 00:41:56.280 They're sitting ducks. 937 00:41:56.460 --> 00:41:56.579 Yeah. 938 00:41:56.639 --> 00:41:57.480 Or sitting mosquitoes. 939 00:41:57.500 --> 00:41:58.340 Sitting mosquitoes. 940 00:41:59.130 --> 00:41:59.289 Right? 941 00:41:59.309 --> 00:42:00.630 Because they're just in the water. 942 00:42:00.650 --> 00:42:01.949 Yeah, with a little siphon. 943 00:42:02.530 --> 00:42:03.989 Still water, not moving water. 944 00:42:04.030 --> 00:42:07.429 Yeah, still water. And dragonflies, as babies, as nymphs, they 945 00:42:07.510 --> 00:42:09.730 will eat mosquitoes. But they don't like to breed in 946 00:42:09.789 --> 00:42:12.139 large numbers on command. So they could never release them 947 00:42:12.179 --> 00:42:14.480 in large enough numbers. Because that would be the solution. 948 00:42:14.519 --> 00:42:15.760 Just put dragonflies everywhere. 949 00:42:16.659 --> 00:42:18.400 Do you know the film The Hellstrom Chronicle? 950 00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:19.119 No. 951 00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:22.260 Maybe my finger's not on the pulse of tomorrow. Am 952 00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:23.539 I not a young, hip woman? 953 00:42:23.599

--> 00:42:28.380 It was an apocalyptic documentary from the 1970s describing the 954 00:42:28.460 --> 00:42:31.590 future where insects take over the world. And they just 955 00:42:31.650 --> 00:42:34.489 eat all of our food supply. The Hellstrom Chronicle. 956 00:42:34.789 --> 00:42:35.110 Yeah. 957 00:42:35.190 --> 00:42:36.849 Check it out. 958 00:42:36.869 --> 00:42:39.289 I've never forgotten it. I saw it like once in 959 00:42:39.329 --> 00:42:40.170 the 1970s. 960 00:42:40.750 --> 00:42:44.219 This idea that there's quote unquote injurious insects, the ones 961 00:42:44.260 --> 00:42:47.380 that are coming, because they like the same things we like. 962 00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:48.900 A lot of insects eat the same things we eat. 963 00:42:49.349 --> 00:42:50.929 That they would come for our crops, that they would 964 00:42:50.949 --> 00:42:53.469 take over, that they're out to get us, right? They're 965 00:42:53.510 --> 00:42:54.650 all locusts. 966 00:42:54.849 --> 00:42:56.809 This is the apocalyptic scenario. 967 00:42:56.989 --> 00:43:00.030 Yeah, but in reality, I think there's a very small 968 00:43:00.070 --> 00:43:04.590 number of stored food pests or grain pests that we're 969 00:43:04.610 --> 00:43:05.030 worried about. 970 00:43:05.050 --> 00:43:07.050 Small number of species, but that doesn't mean they're not 971 00:43:07.630 --> 00:43:09.530 out there ready to eat all of our corn. 972 00:43:10.269 --> 00:43:11.849 Yeah, I mean, if you don't put all of your 973 00:43:11.889 --> 00:43:14.630 corn in one giant pile that's open to insects to 974 00:43:14.650 --> 00:43:16.860 go in there and eat it, then you're solid. You're good. 975 00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:17.860 And how about the boll weevil? 976 00:43:18.699 --> 00:43:20.699 Oh, the boll weevil. I mean, the boll weevil was 977 00:43:20.719 --> 00:43:23.309 an invasive species. Invasive species are also a source of 978 00:43:23.349 --> 00:43:26.949 insect decline, because invasive species often can outcompete native species. 979 00:43:27.010 --> 00:43:29.150 I think a boll weevil might be the only insect, 980 00:43:29.190 --> 00:43:31.739 whatever kind of bug it is. Yeah, beetle. Beetle. The 981 00:43:31.900 --> 00:43:34.340 only one that has a blues song named after it. 982 00:43:34.619 --> 00:43:37.039 Multiple, because people did different versions. 983 00:43:37.300 --> 00:43:37.739 Oh, okay. 984 00:43:37.780 --> 00:43:39.360 There's a Lead Belly one that's very famous. 985 00:43:39.380 --> 00:43:40.210 Yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. 986 00:43:40.219 --> 00:43:42.360 There's a Bessie Smith did one. Multiple people did, because 987 00:43:42.389 --> 00:43:43.150 you can, it's a blues. 988 00:43:43.170 --> 00:43:43.710 Boll weevil. 989 00:43:44.349 --> 00:43:45.210 Yeah, you can pop it in. 990 00:43:45.250 --> 00:43:47.099 Yeah, because if you're picking cotton and there's a boll 991 00:43:47.139 --> 00:43:48.139 weevil eating all your cotton. 992 00:43:48.300 --> 00:43:52.320 Yeah. Where's our current like pop hits about lanternflies? 993 00:43:52.380 --> 00:43:53.000 I know, right? 994 00:43:53.039 --> 00:43:55.489 That's what we really need because those are, I feel like, 995 00:43:55.550 --> 00:43:58.250 our modern irritation. Yeah. 996 00:43:58.710 --> 00:44:00.110 What's a lanternfly? 997 00:44:00.730 --> 00:44:03.309 Well, it's the Shall I? 998 00:44:03.400 --> 00:44:04.320 I think you shall. 999 00:44:04.340 --> 00:44:06.460 Well, is it fly or bug? Lantern bug? 1000 00:44:06.480 --> 00:44:10.539 It's actually a bug. That's very astute as a fellow entomologist. 1001 00:44:10.559 --> 00:44:12.429 I was very astute to call him. And you know what? 1002 00:44:12.550 --> 00:44:15.679 Some things are arachnids and some things aren't is another 1003 00:44:15.699 --> 00:44:18.630 thing I wanted to teach you all. No, but the 1004 00:44:18.690 --> 00:44:21.969 lantern bug is like a thing that eats a bunch 1005 00:44:21.989 --> 00:44:24.489 of Everything, like trees and whatever. 1006 00:44:24.510 --> 00:44:26.170 Yeah, it's got a sucking mouth part. 1007 00:44:26.389 --> 00:44:28.769 It's got a sucking mouth part, not a licking mouth. 1008 00:44:28.789 --> 00:44:31.489 Not a licking mouth, so it sucks the plant juice. 1009 00:44:31.550 --> 00:44:34.610 And it's been in New York City for a few 1010 00:44:34.670 --> 00:44:38.039 years now, and we've been told to stop them every 1011 00:44:38.059 --> 00:44:40.099 time you see one. And they're sort of dumb. It's 1012 00:44:40.179 --> 00:44:43.179 easy to stop them. They don't run away real fast 1013 00:44:43.219 --> 00:44:45.039 or anything. You just easily murder. 1014 00:44:45.119 --> 00:44:48.559 You got to watch out, though, because if you murder 1015 00:44:48.599 --> 00:44:53.989 the ones easily, you're actually... promoting fast ones if you 1016 00:44:54.030 --> 00:44:56.630 kill all the slow ones because they're easy to kill 1017 00:44:56.690 --> 00:44:58.750 yeah you just made a whole generation. 1018 00:44:58.369 --> 00:45:01.050 Of fast ones right they're like adapting to be exactly 1019 00:45:01.139 --> 00:45:02.519 so what you should do is only go after the 1020 00:45:02.559 --> 00:45:05.500 fastest ones but then in the meantime the slow ones 1021 00:45:05.539 --> 00:45:08.099 are still eating all the trees or whatever well they 1022 00:45:08.159 --> 00:45:10.079 suck the I mean okay yeah what are they doing 1023 00:45:10.119 --> 00:45:10.460 they're just. 1024 00:45:10.460 --> 00:45:12.710 Sucking the plant the plant sap. 1025 00:45:12.349 --> 00:45:15.980 Right okay but as we do when we make Maple syrup. 1026 00:45:16.119 --> 00:45:19.019 Yeah, in a lot of ways, they're maple syrup tappers, right? 1027 00:45:19.099 --> 00:45:22.400 The population we think is basically becoming established in the Northeast. 1028 00:45:22.639 --> 00:45:24.840 We tried scraping off their eggs because that was the 1029 00:45:24.900 --> 00:45:26.480 other thing. Well,

maybe we'd get rid of the eggs. 1030 00:45:26.940 --> 00:45:29.820 And that really hasn't done anything. So sadly, we think 1031 00:45:29.860 --> 00:45:31.800 that this is an invasive species that, much like the 1032 00:45:31.820 --> 00:45:34.099 boll weevil, is just kind of here. 1033 00:45:34.119 --> 00:45:37.400 I stomped one this morning. Should I stop stomping them? 1034 00:45:38.079 --> 00:45:39.219 You stumped a boll weevil? 1035 00:45:39.500 --> 00:45:43.420 Where do you live? When I was out in the field. 1036 00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:48.159 She's on the back 40. 1037 00:45:48.159 --> 00:45:49.739 When I was writing my blues songs. 1038 00:45:49.780 --> 00:45:53.050 Yeah, I mean, we don't know that it's really making 1039 00:45:53.070 --> 00:45:55.210 much of an impact. So the best, if you were 1040 00:45:55.250 --> 00:45:57.070 to do anything, you know what you should do? 1041 00:45:57.190 --> 00:45:57.409 Yeah. 1042 00:45:57.650 --> 00:45:59.429 As a New Yorker, as all New Yorkers should do, 1043 00:45:59.809 --> 00:46:01.690 is we should learn the insects in our neighborhood so 1044 00:46:01.710 --> 00:46:05.230 we can prevent the next invasive species from becoming established. 1045 00:46:05.250 --> 00:46:07.650 Because if you knew what was like, on your walk 1046 00:46:07.690 --> 00:46:10.320 to work, right, and you saw something that you weren't 1047 00:46:10.340 --> 00:46:13.400 supposed to see that was unusual, you would tell someone sooner, 1048 00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:16.360 and then you could prevent them from becoming established. 1049 00:46:16.619 --> 00:46:20.900 So if the pavement ants start lifting the slabs. 1050 00:46:20.880 --> 00:46:26.119 Off of them. They're like jacked. They have like little 1051 00:46:26.139 --> 00:46:26.800 muscles on there. 1052 00:46:26.820 --> 00:46:27.869 They work out in the yard. 1053 00:46:27.889 --> 00:46:31.989 All right, so a brief follow-on. I think you already 1054 00:46:32.010 --> 00:46:34.690 went there, but I'm going to just bring a closure 1055 00:46:34.730 --> 00:46:36.760 to it. We have people among us who are saying 1056 00:46:36.820 --> 00:46:40.420 save the whales, save the porpoises, save this, save that. 1057 00:46:40.969 --> 00:46:44.710 Nobody's ever said save the rats or save the leeches 1058 00:46:45.530 --> 00:46:48.489 or save any other parasitic. 1059 00:46:48.510 --> 00:46:49.210 Save the maggots? 1060 00:46:49.409 --> 00:46:50.480 The maggots. There you go. 1061 00:46:50.510 --> 00:46:50.909 If you will. 1062 00:46:51.110 --> 00:46:51.610 Thank you. 1063 00:46:51.630 --> 00:46:53.110 Save the headlouse. 1064 00:46:53.269 --> 00:46:57.210 So what I'm asking is we are very species biased 1065 00:46:57.929 --> 00:47:01.289 about what it is we want to declare that Whereas 1066 00:47:01.570 --> 00:47:04.719 all of these creatures are on God's green earth, just 1067 00:47:04.820 --> 00:47:06.460 trying to make a living. 1068 00:47:06.699 --> 00:47:06.940 Yeah. 1069 00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:09.420 It's not their fault that it's their job to suck 1070 00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:09.880 your blood. 1071 00:47:10.139 --> 00:47:10.360 Yeah. 1072 00:47:10.760 --> 00:47:12.960 That's not, don't blame them for that. Yeah. 1073 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:14.639 The bed bugs just trying to make it in New 1074 00:47:14.659 --> 00:47:15.019 York city. 1075 00:47:15.039 --> 00:47:15.119 Yeah. 1076 00:47:15.510 --> 00:47:16.130 And they're making it. 1077 00:47:17.190 --> 00:47:20.320 What did they do before mattresses, by the way, bed bugs? 1078 00:47:20.940 --> 00:47:23.539 I mean, I feel like the day mattresses were invented, 1079 00:47:23.579 --> 00:47:26.159 bed bugs were like, guys, this is my time. 1080 00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:30.199 But like, if you look, it's actually, if you like 1081 00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:32.460 reading about human history, people have been writing about bed 1082 00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:35.530 bugs for a really long time. Because even when you 1083 00:47:35.570 --> 00:47:37.869 had just clumps of straw, then there were bed bugs 1084 00:47:37.889 --> 00:47:38.489 that were in there. 1085 00:47:38.909 --> 00:47:44.050 And plus, lice, this is the most fascinating fact that I've, 1086 00:47:44.909 --> 00:47:50.650 learned about lice. Most fascinating, okay? Head lice are genetically 1087 00:47:50.730 --> 00:47:52.329 different from genital lice. 1088 00:47:52.429 --> 00:47:53.190 Yeah, it's true. 1089 00:47:53.849 --> 00:47:57.070 Even, okay, no, no, and, and so how does that happen? 1090 00:47:57.150 --> 00:47:58.710 Wait, wait, wait, can I check, can I check? 1091 00:47:59.070 --> 00:48:03.590 Okay, so go really far back, 30,000 years. We're hairy 1092 00:48:03.610 --> 00:48:06.750 all over our bodies. What, the lice wouldn't know who, 1093 00:48:06.829 --> 00:48:09.710 there's just hair everywhere. Then when we started getting less 1094 00:48:09.750 --> 00:48:13.349 and less hair, then we had a hair gap between 1095 00:48:13.389 --> 00:48:17.250 our genital hair and the hair on our heads, so 1096 00:48:17.289 --> 00:48:22.369 that the speciation would have occurred around when we started 1097 00:48:22.409 --> 00:48:25.869 becoming hairless in the major parts of our torso, orphaning 1098 00:48:26.250 --> 00:48:30.349 one branch of the body lice from the other. I 1099 00:48:30.389 --> 00:48:31.269 read that, is that still true? 1100 00:48:31.309 --> 00:48:32.869 I think that's true, and I think we think that 1101 00:48:33.090 --> 00:48:35.860 one is more closely related to the lice that gorillas have, 1102 00:48:36.360 --> 00:48:38.219 and one is more closely related to the lice that 1103 00:48:38.260 --> 00:48:39.059 chimpanzees have. 1104 00:48:39.579 --> 00:48:40.360 Wow. 1105 00:48:40.400 --> 00:48:44.690 Which is which? I forget. I don't want to know. 1106 00:48:44.929 --> 00:48:48.590 What are you going to do with this information? 1107 00:48:48.610 --> 00:48:50.449 I don't know. 1108 00:48:50.489 -->

00:48:53.380 I have a seven-year-old daughter. I want to say something fun. 1109 00:48:53.389 --> 00:48:58.559 About who did Lysette suffer? About head lice. 1110 00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:02.039 About things. About head lice. But you know what? Head 1111 00:49:02.079 --> 00:49:05.469 lice is, you could tell your daughter this, everybody eventually 1112 00:49:05.989 --> 00:49:08.420 gets head lice. People feel a lot of shame about it, 1113 00:49:08.730 --> 00:49:11.030 but like little kids, but they put their heads next 1114 00:49:11.070 --> 00:49:13.159 to each other. And if you have lice, it's not 1115 00:49:13.199 --> 00:49:16.590 that you're dirty or I felt guilty because my mom said, 1116 00:49:16.619 --> 00:49:18.730 if you share hats, you're going to get head lice. 1117 00:49:19.070 --> 00:49:20.639 And there was a head lice out there. in my 1118 00:49:20.699 --> 00:49:23.630 grade one class, you know, and I was convinced it 1119 00:49:23.670 --> 00:49:26.909 was because Jennifer and I had shared a hat at recess. 1120 00:49:27.150 --> 00:49:30.000 But guess what? Now that I'm a grown-up entomologist, you 1121 00:49:30.019 --> 00:49:32.059 could tell your daughter, it's just kind of a fact 1122 00:49:32.099 --> 00:49:32.480 of lice. 1123 00:49:33.400 --> 00:49:36.360 Hey! I see what you did there. 1124 00:49:36.429 --> 00:49:37.139 I didn't even mean it. 1125 00:49:37.139 --> 00:49:38.170 So you contracted lice? 1126 00:49:38.650 --> 00:49:41.690 Head lice, yeah. For the record, for the record, this 1127 00:49:41.710 --> 00:49:42.610 was like 50 years ago. 1128 00:49:42.630 --> 00:49:43.889 It's not like yesterday. 1129 00:49:44.070 --> 00:49:46.519 It was 50 years ago. And I felt a lot of, 1130 00:49:46.829 --> 00:49:50.639 I felt very stressed about it. But it turns out, actually, 1131 00:49:50.820 --> 00:49:53.960 that my mother, who's a high school teacher, there was 1132 00:49:54.079 --> 00:49:56.500 also a head lice outbreak at her high school. So 1133 00:49:56.719 --> 00:49:58.980 now I'm like, it wasn't even me. It wasn't even 1134 00:49:59.059 --> 00:49:59.980 Jennifer's hat. 1135 00:50:00.719 --> 00:50:04.449 Okay, I read and have reported on the fact that 1136 00:50:05.429 --> 00:50:12.389 lice infestations are 10 times more frequent among white children 1137 00:50:12.409 --> 00:50:15.550 than among black children. And just wondering, were you white 1138 00:50:15.610 --> 00:50:16.539 back then when you got the? 1139 00:50:17.139 --> 00:50:20.969 It's like reverse racism with the lice? 1140 00:50:20.989 --> 00:50:24.570 So they like, they will go in any hair. It's 1141 00:50:24.650 --> 00:50:27.730 easier sometimes to find them in hair that is straight. 1142 00:50:27.929 --> 00:50:28.269 Straight. 1143 00:50:28.510 --> 00:50:31.590 And people used to think that, and this maybe was 1144 00:50:31.650 --> 00:50:34.550 true for a period of time from when Madam C.J. 1145 00:50:34.590 --> 00:50:36.489 Walker invented hair pressing. 1146 00:50:36.530 --> 00:50:37.349 Yes, that would have kept it out. 1147 00:50:37.489 --> 00:50:37.690 Yeah. 1148 00:50:37.989 --> 00:50:39.889 So if you were using lye in your hair, or 1149 00:50:39.949 --> 00:50:41.969 if you were using chemical pressing, as we called it, 1150 00:50:42.289 --> 00:50:45.210 then you would, to straighten your hair, then you would 1151 00:50:45.239 --> 00:50:46.360 have been less likely to have lice. 1152 00:50:46.780 --> 00:50:48.090 The lice doesn't stand a chance. 1153 00:50:48.389 --> 00:50:51.110 Lice doesn't stand a chance. But if you were having 1154 00:50:51.170 --> 00:50:54.510 natural hair, which I had natural hair, then you really 1155 00:50:54.550 --> 00:50:57.369 should have your head checked for lice. So this actually 1156 00:50:57.409 --> 00:51:00.550 really happened. My school, they would have the moms from 1157 00:51:00.570 --> 00:51:02.639 the neighborhood come in and do a lice check. But 1158 00:51:02.699 --> 00:51:05.820 the mom said to the three black kids, my twin 1159 00:51:05.860 --> 00:51:07.599 and I and this other black kid, we don't need 1160 00:51:07.619 --> 00:51:10.780 to check your hair because black kids don't get lice. So, okay. 1161 00:51:10.820 --> 00:51:14.219 But I had lice. I had it, and they didn't 1162 00:51:14.239 --> 00:51:16.400 check it. And then I was scratching my head at home, 1163 00:51:16.440 --> 00:51:18.260 and my mom, and we were all scratching our head, 1164 00:51:18.280 --> 00:51:21.719 and then my mom was like, oh! And then she said, oh, 1165 00:51:22.039 --> 00:51:23.800 we all have lice. And I said, oh, no, they 1166 00:51:23.820 --> 00:51:25.719 said we don't get lice, because black kids don't get lice. 1167 00:51:25.780 --> 00:51:27.500 And my mom was really mad, and she went and 1168 00:51:27.539 --> 00:51:30.219 she yelled at the principal. Because it actually is, it's 1169 00:51:30.260 --> 00:51:32.340 not whether you have black hair or white hair, it's 1170 00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:35.179 whether you chemically, if you did a chemical perm, you also, 1171 00:51:35.429 --> 00:51:36.289 like if you were a white guy. 1172 00:51:36.309 --> 00:51:39.130 But also straight, if you said the louse likes straight 1173 00:51:39.150 --> 00:51:42.409 hair better, you're more, so it's a relative, it's not that, 1174 00:51:42.760 --> 00:51:45.110 black people don't get it, is that it's just less likely. 1175 00:51:45.780 --> 00:51:47.739 Well, I mean, it's not that they like straight hair better. 1176 00:51:47.780 --> 00:51:49.800 It's just it's easier for us to find it in 1177 00:51:49.860 --> 00:51:53.480 straight hair. So we often have overlooked, like in my case, 1178 00:51:53.860 --> 00:51:55.380 they could have checked my hair and they didn't. 1179 00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:56.199 Right? 1180 00:51:56.340 --> 00:51:58.139 I had lice. I had a lot of lice. 1181 00:51:58.539 --> 00:51:59.260 Okay. 1182 00:51:59.460 --> 00:52:02.719 It was 50 years ago. Just to underscore,

this was 1183 00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:03.300 50 years ago. 1184 00:52:03.380 --> 00:52:06.159 Is that the day you became an entomologist? 1185 00:52:06.699 --> 00:52:07.460 I hated it. 1186 00:52:07.579 --> 00:52:10.760 Oh, my gosh. I really didn't like it. But nowadays, 1187 00:52:10.840 --> 00:52:13.269 there's actually a lot of things that you can do 1188 00:52:13.349 --> 00:52:16.409 if you have lice. God forbid. Your daughter has life. 1189 00:52:16.730 --> 00:52:21.280 Call me. There's ways you can treat it without chemical insecticide. 1190 00:52:21.760 --> 00:52:25.179 What is the size of the smallest and the largest bug? 1191 00:52:26.440 --> 00:52:29.519 Oh, that's a good question. So there are these little tiny, tiny, 1192 00:52:29.559 --> 00:52:32.699 tiny things called fairy flies that are just a couple 1193 00:52:32.739 --> 00:52:35.829 of millimeters, and they're really, really tiny. That's probably the smallest. 1194 00:52:35.909 --> 00:52:36.389 And they fly? 1195 00:52:36.769 --> 00:52:39.610 They can fly, but, I mean, come on. They're very, 1196 00:52:39.650 --> 00:52:42.889 very tiny, so they're not going long. Other than by wind. 1197 00:52:43.010 --> 00:52:43.829 They can be blown by wind. 1198 00:52:43.849 --> 00:52:44.050 Mm-hmm. 1199 00:52:44.750 --> 00:52:48.250 And the biggest ones, in terms of length, there's some really, 1200 00:52:48.269 --> 00:52:51.949 really long stick insects, Phasmatodea. In terms of weight, there's... 1201 00:52:51.969 --> 00:52:52.289 Stick ones. 1202 00:52:52.309 --> 00:52:55.460 Those ones that look like sticks on, like tree sticks. 1203 00:52:55.500 --> 00:52:57.719 There's ones that are longer than, about as long as 1204 00:52:57.760 --> 00:52:58.400 my arm here. 1205 00:52:58.420 --> 00:52:59.059 Oh, wow. 1206 00:52:59.559 --> 00:53:00.840 But then there are really heavy. 1207 00:53:00.860 --> 00:53:02.800 Are those like in Brazilian rainforest kind of. 1208 00:53:03.250 --> 00:53:06.030 Or Vietnam or Asia. Like, there's lots of tropical. 1209 00:53:06.070 --> 00:53:06.789 Great tropical. 1210 00:53:06.909 --> 00:53:08.969 Yeah, tropical. Although you can get some pretty big ones 1211 00:53:09.010 --> 00:53:10.969 in Texas if you go back there. There's some pretty 1212 00:53:11.010 --> 00:53:13.429 big ones in Texas. But then in terms of, like, mass, 1213 00:53:13.550 --> 00:53:15.699 I would say there are some beetles that are really, 1214 00:53:15.739 --> 00:53:16.760 really pretty heavy. 1215 00:53:17.059 --> 00:53:20.039 Like, what are we talking? Like an orange, an apple, 1216 00:53:20.260 --> 00:53:21.119 or like a. 1217 00:53:21.380 --> 00:53:24.880 Yeah, like a navel orange. The weight of a navel orange. 1218 00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:26.940 What? That's wild. And how big? 1219 00:53:29.179 --> 00:53:32.619 Let's say... How about this? Let's say navel orange in 1220 00:53:32.719 --> 00:53:33.800 weight and size. 1221 00:53:34.380 --> 00:53:36.800 That grosses me out so hard. No, it's

so good. 1222 00:53:36.820 --> 00:53:38.460 Because if you step on that, it would go pop. 1223 00:53:38.599 --> 00:53:40.480 But you wouldn't. 1224 00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:44.889 But you wouldn't, of course. I, of course, possibly. 1225 00:53:44.170 --> 00:53:45.789 Would, depending on the situation. 1226 00:53:45.829 --> 00:53:46.869 I'm so sorry. 1227 00:53:46.889 --> 00:53:50.090 Because to see that, you'd actually have, assuming that you 1228 00:53:50.110 --> 00:53:51.630 spend most of your time in New York City, you 1229 00:53:51.650 --> 00:53:53.989 would have traveled somewhere to see it. And you wouldn't 1230 00:53:54.010 --> 00:53:54.969 be like, oh, I'm here now. 1231 00:53:55.110 --> 00:53:55.449 Squash. 1232 00:53:55.530 --> 00:53:56.289 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1233 00:53:56.349 --> 00:53:56.929 That's true. 1234 00:53:57.010 --> 00:53:59.300 You don't go out of your way. Right, right, right. 1235 00:53:59.929 --> 00:54:03.309 And I remember reading National Geographic, and they had an 1236 00:54:03.750 --> 00:54:06.409 issue on beetles, and one of them was the Goliath beetle. 1237 00:54:06.469 --> 00:54:06.650 Yeah. 1238 00:54:07.030 --> 00:54:08.280 That was something like this big? 1239 00:54:08.300 --> 00:54:11.519 Yeah. I mean, I would say they're the navel orange, 1240 00:54:11.860 --> 00:54:13.239 a big navel orange size. 1241 00:54:13.360 --> 00:54:13.699 Okay. 1242 00:54:13.860 --> 00:54:14.099 Yeah. 1243 00:54:14.119 --> 00:54:15.199 And they're heavy. Are beetles bugs? 1244 00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:19.659 They're not. They're coleoptera. They're holometabolous insects that have an egg. 1245 00:54:19.670 --> 00:54:21.820 Holo- Holometabolism, yeah. 1246 00:54:21.840 --> 00:54:23.000 The non-holometabolism. 1247 00:54:23.019 --> 00:54:27.739 Yeah, egg, larva, pupa, complete rearrangement, and then adult. And 1248 00:54:27.760 --> 00:54:30.679 there's more beetles than there is almost anything on Earth 1249 00:54:30.739 --> 00:54:33.260 described right now, although I think that bees, ants, and 1250 00:54:33.280 --> 00:54:35.250 wasps are catching up, because people are describing a lot 1251 00:54:35.269 --> 00:54:35.849 of those right now. 1252 00:54:36.150 --> 00:54:39.889 Please give us Darwin's quote about beetles, and we will 1253 00:54:39.949 --> 00:54:40.469 end on that. 1254 00:54:40.550 --> 00:54:43.159 Or Haldane. Could I give you Haldane's quote? That there's 1255 00:54:43.179 --> 00:54:43.699 an inordinate- Oh. 1256 00:54:43.719 --> 00:54:44.940 Did JBS Haldane? Yeah, okay. 1257 00:54:45.119 --> 00:54:46.019 How about if I give that one? 1258 00:54:46.079 --> 00:54:46.340 Okay. 1259 00:54:46.619 --> 00:54:48.570 Although Darwin did work on beetles. That was the thing 1260 00:54:48.610 --> 00:54:50.659 he worked on first. But Haldane said that God must 1261 00:54:50.679 --> 00:54:52.630 have an inordinate fondness for beetles. 1262 00:54:53.369 --> 00:54:56.469 Given how many, that's the quote I was looking for, Haldane. 1263 00:54:57.150 --> 00:54:57.989 He's got some good quotes. 1264 00:54:58.190 --> 00:55:00.829 Yeah, a page turner. Let's go for a page turner. 1265 00:55:01.130 --> 00:55:04.570 Well, Jessica, my gosh. I had all this pent up 1266 00:55:04.949 --> 00:55:08.769 bug energy. Can we do this once a year? 1267 00:55:09.130 --> 00:55:10.269 Yeah, let's do it insect time. 1268 00:55:11.329 --> 00:55:11.610 Yes. 1269 00:55:11.989 --> 00:55:12.409 Once a year. 1270 00:55:12.750 --> 00:55:19.420 I mean, your entire thing fascinates me. And you're interested 1271 00:55:19.539 --> 00:55:22.760 in it, your origin story, which I've decided is with 1272 00:55:22.800 --> 00:55:23.400 the lice. 1273 00:55:23.599 --> 00:55:27.559 It's a lousy story. 1274 00:55:28.340 --> 00:55:29.900 It was 50 years ago. 1275 00:55:29.920 --> 00:55:32.559 And you've got dragonfly earrings. 1276 00:55:33.599 --> 00:55:37.500 I have two different kinds, dragonfly earrings. And I have 1277 00:55:37.519 --> 00:55:41.489 a beetle ring as well. I went full insect, I went. 1278 00:55:41.510 --> 00:55:44.929 I mean, you're repping insects hard today. 1279 00:55:45.210 --> 00:55:46.489 They need a little laugh. 1280 00:55:46.530 --> 00:55:46.889 It's fascinating. 1281 00:55:46.909 --> 00:55:49.260 No, when the insects take over, she'll be their queen. 1282 00:55:51.179 --> 00:55:54.159 We need someone out advocating for them because everyone really 1283 00:55:54.219 --> 00:55:57.139 hates them. So this is like a good feel. They 1284 00:55:57.179 --> 00:55:58.199 need you on PR. 1285 00:55:59.619 --> 00:56:01.159 We should all love the insects. We've got to save 1286 00:56:01.199 --> 00:56:02.519 the insects if we want to save ourselves. 1287 00:56:02.699 --> 00:56:04.079 Well, again, thank you, Jessica. 1288 00:56:04.219 --> 00:56:04.699 Thank you. 1289 00:56:04.760 --> 00:56:07.659 Friend and colleague just across the way here. at the 1290 00:56:07.699 --> 00:56:09.599 American Museum of Natural History, right up here on the 1291 00:56:09.659 --> 00:56:12.699 Upper West Side of New York City. We are here 1292 00:56:12.719 --> 00:56:16.099 in my office at the Hayden Planetarium, and we're going 1293 00:56:16.119 --> 00:56:20.800 to come back to you with more insect queries for sure. 1294 00:56:20.820 --> 00:56:23.820 And McGeen, your podcast. 1295 00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:26.300 My podcast is Fake the Nation. 1296 00:56:26.320 --> 00:56:27.400 Have I ever been on your podcast? 1297 00:56:27.420 --> 00:56:27.940 You have. 1298 00:56:27.980 --> 00:56:29.599 You've been on it a few times. 1299 00:56:29.619 --> 00:56:30.239 But not lately. 1300 00:56:30.280 --> 00:56:32.619 We're going to bring you back. The people need to 1301 00:56:32.659 --> 00:56:33.460 hear your takes. 1302 00:56:33.500 --> 00:56:35.239 You don't call. You don't write. 1303 00:56:35.619 --> 00:56:39.110 You don't text. I know. We will bring you back. 1304 00:56:39.289 --> 00:56:42.849 Now that you have this bug energy. 1305 00:56:44.150 --> 00:56:46.889 Fake the Nation. And we can catch you. Are you 1306 00:56:46.909 --> 00:56:49.079 a regular on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me? 1307 00:56:49.090 --> 00:56:51.289 That's right. Tune in to Fake the Nation. Wait, Wait, 1308 00:56:51.309 --> 00:56:51.730 Don't Tell Me. 1309 00:56:51.750 --> 00:56:54.750 We'll find you there. We love you. All right. This 1310 00:56:55.510 --> 00:57:00.039 has been the bug edition of StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson, 1311 00:57:00.079 --> 00:57:05.090 your personal astrophysicist. Keep looking up or down at the bugs.