Episode 5 - Human Leader Attacks Mantis and Tarantula

This is the Fifth episode in the storyline of "Humans-B-Gone!" You can watch it here.

### Episode Summary

Sophodra and Rose are looking around while Gregorsa informs us of colors beyond what we can see and senses that we often neglect, such as smell. Sophodra and Rose fall through the ground from a trap that a hiver used on them and find themselves in a dangerous situation. They encounter a group of hivers who have been hiding their scent and are now exposed. Sophodra catches them off with a venus flytrap gun and encounters Vera, who she chases through a neighboring chamber in a chase scene. Vera takes a gun, climbs up Sophodra and shoot her, throwing her to the ground in pain. Vera takes this time to open up Sophodra's pack and help the Hivers escape. Sophodra closes the pack, gets up and tries to catch Vera, but small pillars cut off her route and trap her. Rose summons a fungal extrusion to free Sophodra. Sophodra reels over on her side in exhaustion and Rose helps her up. Sophodra realizes Rose is skilled with machines and offers her a job at Formicosa Apex. Gregorsa describes the planet Angion and its immense plant system, Tricularia, consisting of 86 bladders orbiting Angion and held in place by a holdfast. Each bladder is the size of a small country and contains a unique ecosystem. The story has taken place in the underground portion of a bladder called Formicosa B-1, part of the Formicosa Bladder complex, where Formicosa Palace, the home of the ant queens, is located. The text then moves up to Formicosa Apex and Formicosa City, where the next class will take place.

### -Gregorsa's Notes-

Click the number to get the info for that citation marker. There are 32 points possible.

Toggle All Notes

**[1]**

It's not as simple as being able to see these colors--after all, humans who are red-green colorblind can still *perceive* red light, even if it doesn't *look* red to them.

These colors lie at opposite ends of the spectrum. Your eyes actually *shut out* the ultraviolet (UV) end of the spectrum--and likewise, ours shut out the red end.

**3 pts** if you knew about the visible spectrum.

**3 pts** if you knew what was visible to us.

**[2]**
    Once the light is let into your eye, the colors are registered by elements called *color receptors*. The average human has three types: red, green, and blue. The other colors come from your brain processing those three.
By contrast, most insects have receptors for green, blue, and *ultraviolet*. (Our brains process these colors differently, but I have done my best to "translate" the colors that we see for our perspective here.)

This is not universally the case, however. My species cannot see color at all; and some butterflies have as many as *fifteen*color receptors!

I have elected to translate "ultraviolet" as "ved," to emphasize that it is a common color to us. Likewise, I translate "red" as "ultragreen" to emphasize how uncommon it is among (insect) macrovolutes to be able to see it."

**3 pts** for knowing about color receptors.

**3 pts** for knowing about *insect* color receptors.

**[3]**

On the other hand, it is not uncommon for spiders to be able to see green, blue, ultraviolet, *and* red. In fact, as proto- cules, there is evidence that even tarantulas may be able to see these colors (blurry as their sight may be).

As macrovolutes, however, tarantulas have much in common with the other arachnids, and cannot see any colors at all.

**[4]**

A carnivorous water plant, which captures small aquatic invertebrates in its "bladders," within which they are digested. These bladders are also home to rich microbial biomes, however.

Tricularia, fortunately, has expanded on its life-sustaining abilities, and forgotten its ability to destroy what lives inside it. Well, mostly.

Note that bladderworts normally lack "holdfasts," and this is an adaptation unique to Tricularia.

**3 pts** for a familiarity with bladderworts.

**[5]**

Algae with colorful silicate shells that come in a variety of shapes. In our world, giant diatoms live in an ocean at the bottom of the bladder that shares their name. When they die their corpses are pushed up, grinding together to sand after they die.

The resulting "diatomaceous earth" is actually lethal to our protocules, slicing open their exoskeletons and leaving them to bleed out. As macrovolutes, fortunately, we are able to traverse it without harm.

**2 pts** for knowing about diatoms.

**1 pt** for knowing about diatomaceous earth.

**[6]**

    These exist in your world as well--lakes of such intense salt concentration that they would burn your skin. In our world, the Unknown Nature allows the salt formations to grow into elaborate, crystalline towers.

**1 pt** for knowing about salt lakes.

#### -Our World-

**[7]**
    The same word encompasses "engineer," "programmer," "botanist," and "mycologist." This is because our fungal plant machinery blurs the line between software and hardware.
Our machines respond to "verbal" (pheromone) commands. There are the loud ones, such as when Rose called on her console to brush her for her morning routine. There are also the whispered ones, seen when Rose holds her pedipalps close to the fungal interface. In this proximity, commands can be given much more quickly, and in greater detail. (An insect would use their antennae for this.)

Arachnid engineers are rare--both due to a general lack of interest in plants, and a general presence of discouragement from insects. I'll admit I could have done better here, myself.

**3 pts** if you remembered Rose's console command.

**[8]**
     All minerals must be pumped up by Tricularia from the planet below. As a result, the only soil is humus, the place isn’t old enough for most rocks, and most abiotic substances are very rare.
Because of the small size of the bladders, there is no gravity (or at least, so little gravity as to be virtually nil) apart from the gravity-like effects of the Unknown Nature. If not for the bladder walls, all oxygen would escape into space! The bladders also circulate air, creating wind currents by "breathing."

**[9]**
    Formicosa B-1 is where our story has been set so far, and where Rose hails from. It's home to the largest Arachnid Nest, as well as several ant factories for them to work in (though what these factories make, exactly, is known only to the ants). It's also home to a Roach Nest and Beetle Nest, with other insect Nests minor enough to qualify only as sisters to the other two. However, some Nests in Formicosa City use B-1 as a nursery. And though no ants technically call this place home, it is full of them.
B-2 is similarly populated. The farther down you go down the bladder complex, however, the more populated by ants, to the point that Palace is strictly ants only.

Like the lowest levels of ant nests in your world, Formicosa Palace is where the ants keep their nurseries and their queens, Queen Beloka and Queen Orrha...or, just "Beloka" and "Orrha," as the ants call them.

After all, what title could be befitting of a god?
#### "Secret" Quote

The end quote shows up very quickly for a brief moment, to reveal it Click "Reveal"

**Reveal**

"...but now I can see all the

colors. I can even see what green looks like"

### Sources for the Episode

Each episode has sources that are listed at the end of the episode, click "Sources" to show all the sources at the end of the episode.

Sources
* revereche (https://physics.stackexchange.com/users/264732/revereche), What determines whether colors you can't see are visible or not?, URL (version: 2022-08-17): https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/552840

* Brehm, G., Niermann, J., Jaimes Nino, L.M., Enseling, D., Jüstel, T., Axmacher, J.C., Warrant, E. and Fiedler, K. (2021), Moths are strongly attracted to ultraviolet and blue radiation. Insect Conserv Divers, 14: 188-198.

* Thompson, H. (2015, May 22). How jumping spiders see in color. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-jumping-spiders-see-color-180955368/

* Foley Saoirse, Saranathan Vinodkumar and Piel William H. 2020 The evolution of coloration and opsins in tarantulas Proc. R. Soc. B. 287: 20201688. 20201688.

* Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "bladderwort". Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date, https://www.britannica.com/plant/bladderwort. Accessed 1 February 2023.

* Spaulding et al. 2021. Diatoms.org: supporting taxonomists, connecting communities. Diatom Research 36(4): 291-304.

* Bunch, T. R.; Bond, C.; Buhl, K.; Stone, D. 2013. Diatomaceous Earth General Fact Sheet; National Pesticide Information Center, Oregon State University Extension Services. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/degen.html.

* Hammer, U. T. (1986). Saline Lake Ecosystems of the World. Springer. pp. 14–15. ISBN 90-6193-535-0. Retrieved 5 June 2020.

1. ↑ Horst Frank CC BY-SA 4.0
2. ↑ Johannes Ahlmann CC BY 2.0
3. ↑ Thomas Shahan CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
4. ↑ H. Zell CC BY-SA 3.0
5. ↑ California Academy of Science CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
6. ↑ California Academy of Science CC BY-NC-ND 2.0