Episode 2 - A Day in the Life of a Giant Tarantula and Scorpion

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

### Episode Summary

The second episode opens with a field of parasitic flowers, and the camera moves over them to reveal Rose, a tarantula, waking up. She stretches, activates her morning routine and then watches a orchideo piece. Harvey interrupts and reminds Rose that she's going to be late for work. She heads to work and we learn from Gregorsa that not all arachnids are spiders. Rose walks through town, greeting and talking with various arachnids including her sister Violet who is a scorpion. As Gregorsa continues to provide information about different arachnid species. The sisters take public transport to work. They share a ride on a contractile and discuss how Violet enjoys her new place and encourages Rose to move out of their father's place, though Rose doesn't feel like it's in her budget. Violet explains if she was more careful she could. The current conversation gets cut off when a UV light comes on, afterwards Violet asks Rose about the color blue, where Rose explains her ideas on what the color blue is. Violet then takes a pause to think about it, afterwards Violet states that Rose could stay with her to help her, which Rose tries to decline. Violet continues to state how it's okay and continues listing reasons until the ants nearby entirely drown them out. A ant then comes down from the root to tell them to seperate by species. At this point Violet walks away after quickly saying goodbye. We then see Gregorsa in the white void again, explaining the differences between arachnids and insects. After that he touches on the similar elements in there world and also name drops the "Bolecore." Afterwards we get information about his citations and citation numbers and then flicks to black.

### -Gregorsa's Notes-

Click the number to get the info for that citation marker. There are 41 points possible. 2 of these points were for if you are keeping track of the Citation numbers.

Toggle All Notes

**[1]**

Most plants require sunlight in order to photosynthesize. Holoparasites like broomrape are an exception. Instead, they parasitize other plants, piercing the host plant's roots with their own and siphoning off what nutrients they need.

Due to a lack of chlorophyll, holoparasitic plants are not green.

**3 pts** if you're aware of holoparasites.

**[2]**    You may not be familiar with the **sundew,** but you're probably aware of its relative, the *Venus flytrap.* Like its cousin, the sundew is a voracious eater of insects. The sticky "dew" holds an insect fast while the tentacles curl around it, allowing the plant to slowly digest the unlucky individual.

In our world, however, we have put them to work *for* us as grooming devices. Through selective breeding and judicious grafting, we who live underground have even weaned the sundew off its need for sunlight.

(What is it, now? Only a dew?)

**1 pt** if you're no stranger to carnivorous plants.

**3 pts** for sundews in particular.

**[3]**
    Orchids of genuses like *Ophrys* and *Cryptostylis* faithfully mimic female bees and wasps, tricking males of the species into mating with them in order to spread their pollen.

From orchids like this one we have engineered the *orchideo,* a plant-based technology that uses flowers to simulate figures and their smells. It functions as a combination of a TV and a phone, with an (admittedly, limited) "Internet."

Its functions are...*usually* more wholesome.

**3 pts** if you're familiar with sexual mimicry in orchids.

**5 pts** if you guessed the wasp.

**[4]**
    The etymology is uncertain, but one possibility comes from the Greek *gramma,* Latin *rosea,* and the original sense of *stola:* "rosy armor bearing writing or an image." Referring to the flower-like pattern, perhaps?

Though not members of the "true spider" infraorder (*Araneomorphae*), tarantulas nonetheless are spiders, and belong to the same order (*Araneae*). Like most other spiders, tarantulas have eight eyes, eight legs, and are capable of spinning silk.

Tarantulas and most other large arachnids are nocturnal, preferring the safety of their dark burrows during the day.

On Formicosa B-1, they rarely find a reason to leave that darkness.

**2 pts** if you knew arachnids are not insects.

**2 pts** more if you knew not all arachnids are spiders.

**[5]**
    Male **harvestmen** are indeed doting fathers, taking special care of the eggs until they hatch.

As macrovolutes, harvestman fathers care for their young even beyond that, well earning another name for their order: “daddy longlegs.”

**2 pts** if you're familiar with harvestmen.

**2 pts** again if you're familiar with their parenting techniques.

**[6]**

As protocules, many mites are so small as to be microscopic. As a result, despite their wide range, your people know very little about them.

Even as macrovolutes, I think they hold secrets from the rest of us...even from other arachnids.

Ah, but I don't have time to pursue every mystery.

Spider mites are unusual among mites. They are social creatures, and true to their name, spin spider-like sheets of silk to live in.

In the arachnid nest of Formicosa B-1, macrovolute spider mites work together with the tarantulas to maintain their home.

**1 pt** for knowing about spider mites.

**[7]**
    True to their name, **vinegaroons** will spray a substance similar to vinegar (both containing acetic acid) when threatened.
They are also called "whip scorpions," though they are not scorpions at all, and instead belong to their own order entirely.

**2 pts** if you've heard of vinegaroons.

**[8]**
    **Amblypygids** are also known as "whip spiders" or "tailless whip scorpions"--though again, they are neither, and have their own order.
Mothers are known to communicate with their children using their front legs.

**2 pts** for amblypygids, as well.

**[9]**
    As protocules, **pseudoscorpions** are very little--the text in the image gives context for *how* little. Even as macrovolutes, they are still on the smaller side.
As the name would suggest, they are not actually scorpions, and have their own order.

**2 pts** for knowing about pseudoscorpions.

**[10]**

This arachnid order seems to be rather famous among you.
The emperor scorpion, like many scorpions, glows in low lighting when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) rays.

**3 pts** if you knew about scorpion fluorescence.

**[11]**
    Plants like lilies and hyacinths possess what are called **contractile roots.** In lilies, the contractile roots extend from a central **corm**, similar to a hyacinth's bulb. Expanding and contracting from the corm like accordions, these roots work to gradually drag the plant deeper into the ground.

In our world, we have bred the lily into the *contractile,* an underground train.

**3 pts** if you had already learned about contractile roots.

**[12]**
I left out extinct groups for simplicity. And, admittedly, I am stitching together a cladogram here from disparate sources.
It is very difficult to piece together a consistent genetic tree from your literature--your people seem to have multiple, *competing* taxonomic schemes.

**3 pts** if you knew insects were more closely related to crustaceans than to arachnids.

(Or we might actually **be** crustaceans, depending on who you trust.)

**[13]**
Good job!

#### "Secret" Quote

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

**Reveal**

"given her alruistic nature,

admit the spider is a gamble, but

should give all the push she needs to"

### 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
• Andrea Casadesús, Sergi Munné-Bosch, Holoparasitic plant–host interactions and their impact on Mediterranean ecosystems, *Plant Physiology*, Volume 185, Issue 4, April 2021, Pages 1325–1338, https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiab030

• D'Amato, P. (1998). *The savage garden: Cultivating carnivorous plants.* Berkeley, Calif: Ten Speed Press.

• Schiestl, F.P., Cozzolino, S. Evolution of sexual mimicry in the orchid subtribe orchidinae: the role of preadaptations in the attraction of male bees as pollinators. *BMC Evol Biol 8,* 27 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-8-27

• Public Library of Science. (2012, October 10). Single daddy longlegs dads caring for eggs suffer no disadvantages despite parenting costs. *ScienceDaily.* Retrieved December 24, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010172118.htm

• Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). *Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary.* Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.

• Rayor, Linda (December 2017). "Social Behavior in Amblypygids, and a Reassessment of Arachnid Social Patterns". *Journal of Arachnology. 31* (12): 399–421. doi:10.1636/S04-23

• A. Fasel, P.-A. Muller, P. Suppan, E. Vauthey, Photoluminescence of the African scorpion “Pandinus imperator”, *Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology,* Volume 39, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 96-98, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1011-1344(96)00016-4.

• Jaffe, M. J., & Leopold, A. C. (2007). Light Activation of Contractile Roots of Easter Lily, *Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 132*(5), 575-582. Retrieved Dec 24, 2021, from https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/132/5/article-p575.xml

• *Lab 4. morphology part 1: Insect external anatomy.* ENT 425 - General Entomology. (n.d.). Retrieved December 24, 2021, from https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/students/lab-schedule/1455-2/

• *Class Arachnida.* Class Arachnida | Department of Entomology. (n.d.). Retrieved December 24, 2021, from https://entomology.unl.edu/class-arachnida

• Rota-Stabelli, O., Campbell, L., Brinkmann, H., Edgecombe, G. D., Longhorn, S. J., Peterson, K. J., Pisani, D., Philippe, H., & Telford, M. J. (2011). A congruent solution to arthropod phylogeny: phylogenomics, microRNAs and morphology support monophyletic Mandibulata. *Proceedings. Biological sciences, 278*(1703), 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0590

• Schultz, J.W. (2007), "A phylogenetic analysis of the arachnid orders based on morphological characters", *Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society,* 150 (2): 221–265, doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00284.x

1. ↑ Thayne Tuason CC BY-NC 3.0
2. ↑ Mary Keim CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
3. ↑ Peter Zschunke CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
4. ↑ JC Schou CC BY-NC 3.0
5. ↑ Malcolm Storey CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
6. ↑ Ante Perkovic CC BY-SA 3.0
7. ↑ J. Holopainen CC BY-SA 3.0
8. ↑ Aleksey Gnilenkov CC BY 3.0
9. ↑ Lynette Elliott CC BY-SA 2.0
10. ↑ Dick Culbert CC BY 2.0
11. ↑ Nobu Tamura CC BY-SA 4.0 spinops.blogspot.com
12. ↑ Rosa Pineda CC BY-SA 3.0
13. ↑ Rosa Pineda CC BY-SA 3.0
14. ↑ Rosser1954 CC BY-SA 4.0