 Horror/Scary: July 23, 2014 Issue [#6443] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Along came a spider... Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
When I was a kid, I used to be afraid of the dark. I would stand at my door, turn the light off and dive into bed. One night, as I did that, there was this gigantic spider next to my pillow. I hit the bed and bounced straight back up. When I turned the light back on, it was already gone. I could not sleep in my room for days
~Brian Krause
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Many of you probably cringed when you read the word "spider" in the title of this newsletter. (Admit it, you did!)
I study insects and spiders for a living, and think they are fascinating, but I still don't want them crawling on me. What is it about spiders and other crawly things that inspires horror far out of proportion to their size?
Too many legs:Most familiar animals (including us) have four limbs. Snakes are an exception, but they are the subject of another newsletter! Having more than four limbs just seems alien, especially when all those limbs scurry over your face late at night...
Bites, stings, and poison: Many insects can bite or sting, and some of them can cause fairly serious reactions, especially in people with allergies. Almost all spiders are poisonous and have fangs to inject their poison into unsuspecting victims. Okay, most of those unsuspecting victims are insects that we don't like any better than we like the spiders, but fanged creatures are just made for horror stories!
Strange mating practices: The infamous black widow spider got its name because the female often eats the male after mating with him. This doesn't always happen, but if you were a male black widow, would you want to take the chance? The female praying mantis bites off the male's head as they are mating. Bedbugs have the most bizarre mating practice of all, but it might even creep out some horror fans, so if you want to know what it is, look it up! 
Mimicry: Some insects pretend to be other species, by the way they look and act. Some moths look like bees and some flies have a pattern on their wings that resembles a spider's legs. These insects are simply pretending to be something dangerous so they will be left alone, but other mimics have a more sinister motive. Lightning bugs flash their lights to attract mates, and each species has its own "Morse Code" of flashes. Some female lightning bugs have learned to mimic the flash sequence of other species. When a male of the other species answers her signal, she eats him.
Parasitism: Many a summer night has been ruined by hordes of flying bloodsucking vampires (mosquitoes), and as for ticks, even I can't think of a good reason for them to exist! Even more creepy are parasitoids, small wasps which insert their eggs into the body of another insect. The larval wasp feeds and grows inside the host and when it emerges...well, if you saw any of the "Alien" movies, you have a good idea what happens to the host. 
Sheer numbers:One bee or grasshopper by itself cannot do much damage, but a swarm of killer bees or locusts can be devastating. Most invertebrates are harmless, and many are beneficial, but what if they became intelligent? They outnumber us by the billions, so it wouldn't be wise to get on their bad side!
Something to try: Write a story that includes killer bugs. |
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