Episode 4 - Mantis Meets Tarantula

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

### Episode Summary

Rose is exploring the tunnel and comes across a damaged console hub, which she inspects. When she gets closer to it, she realizes it's been chewed up by gubs. As she tries to fix it, She senses something behind her and turns around to see Sophodra hanging out on the ceiling. Sophodra startles Rose by dropping down and asking if she can help her. Rose nervously introduces herself, and Sophodra snidely comments on her name. They both admit to having wandered off course and discuss their reasons for being in the area. Sophodra reveals that she's been called in by the ants for a job, and when Rose asks what she's doing, She gets cut off from seeing a hiver. Sophodra then picks up the shows her a human. Rose is disgusted by the human and the smell they excrete, but Sophodra is unimpressed by her ignorance of "gubs," or humans, and proceeds to educate her about the different classifications of animals. So Sophodra tries to teach Rose by explaining the unique features of humans and went down clades all the way down to "*homo sapiens*." While this happens the Hivers find an unknown object and bring Commander Vera to it. Gregorsa, reveals that the previous depictions of the macrovolutes and their world have not been entirely accurate. They communicate through pheromones rather than sound. He also explains that he has taken some liberties in his translations to help understand the macrovolutes emotions and actions, such as portraying them with human-like expressions and gestures. Gregorsa admits that he has taken even more liberties in portraying himself, as he has never stood on two legs before. He hopes that this does not come across as dishonest and dismisses the class, ending the video.

### -Gregorsa's Notes-

Click the number to get the info for that citation marker. There are 29 points possible.

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**[1]**

As both protocules and macrovolutes, most insects and arachnids possess two *tarsal claws* at the end of each foot. This allows us to cling to surfaces, and as macrovolutes, provides us with a fine, delicate grip that surpasses the dexterity of your own. Though we lack thumbs, for most of us, this is well supplemented by our mouthparts and additional limbs.

**3 pts** if you knew about tarsal claws.

**3 pts**  if you noticed Sophodra's.

**[2]**
    Mammals require a great deal of oil to keep their fur coats healthy. Lacking fur, you nonetheless produce great amounts of skin oil, principally a substance known as *sebum*. A grown human may produce as much sebum as 1.45 mg/10 sq cm/3 hr; that is, approximately 10 tablespoons of sebum per 4 square inches of skin over 3 hours.
As you would expect, this creates an environment rife with bacteria and fungi. The resulting smell and texture is quite noxious to us, seeping through even your heaviest clothing eventually. Mammals crawling on us coat our sensory hairs with the stuff, causing most of my people to find you rather... repugnant.

**2 pts** if you were aware of your extensive skin biome.

**[3]**
    And just as you have brains, so too do insects and arachnids--yes, even as protocules! Complex brains, in fact! Like yours, insect brains are divided into several parts, with each part specializing in different neurological processes. Far from mindless machines, even protocule insects take careful stock of their surroundings, remembering what they've experienced and formulating future decisions based on those experiences.
Arachnids are no slouches themselves. Jumping spiders, for instance, are capable of figuring out complicated three-dimensional routes very quickly. Check my sources for more details.

**5 pts** if you already knew that insects and arachnids have brains.

**[4]**

Among insect brains, the ant worker is queen. Members of *Aphaenogaster subterranea*, among other species, are known to use makeshift sponges to carry liquids back to their nests. This qualifies as a form of tool use--something even most mammals are incapable of.

Tools may also be used for warfare. Members of *Dorymyrmex bicolor* (formerly *Conomyrma bicolor*) will drop rocks on the heads of enemy *Myrmecocystus mexicanus* to blockade them in their own nests.

Of course, this is not getting into the abilities of ants to farm, to weave, to repair holes in host plants by constructing walls out of a prepared paste, or... to communicate.

**5 pts** if you knew about ant tool use.

**[5]**
 Yes, insects and arachnids use special smells known as *pheromones* to communicate. (Technically, this should refer only to same-species communication, but macrovolutes are all the same type on some level.) As macrovolutes, we even wear special scents known as "titles," to indicate things like species, gender, and name. It is customary not to introduce yourself, but to indicate you have smelled the other party's name correctly. The more unsure you act, the more polite.
As protocules, ants utilize smell (and sometimes other senses) to communicate on a level far beyond that of other insects. Even as macrovolutes, their dense, rapid forms of communication may sometimes overwhelm the rest of us...arachnids especially.

**5 pts** if you were already familiar with pheromones.
#### -Our World-

**[6][7]**

Of course, our measurement system is actually very different from yours. For instance, we typically use the same unit to measure volume, movement vector, speed, and distance (omitting dimensions of the measurement where irrelevant). It...flows more smoothly in our language. Naturally, it is also geared toward covering greater distances than mere feet or meters.

Likewise, our taxonomic scheme is not the same as yours...but that's a little much to get into. Here, too, I have seen fit to translate.

**[8]**
    There are no fossils in our world. However, as we ourselves depend heavily on scent, so does our technology. Accordingly, we have developed machines to analyze the smells of samples, carefully determining differences in molecular structure to such a fine degree that it can be used as a molecular clock--that is, to trace how far back two organisms share a common ancestor.
With this technology, we have been able to outline the phylogenetic trees of many organisms in our world, fossils or no fossils.

**3 pts** if you'd heard of gas chromatography—mass spectrometry.

**3 pts** if you knew about molecular clocks.

#### "Secret" Quote

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

**Reveal**

"Oh, ...you stood like me for long

enough. It's only fair if I"
### 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
* Gorb, S.N. (1996), Design of insect unguitractor apparatus. J. Morphol., 230: 219-230.

* Downing DT, Stewart ME, Strauss JS. Estimation of sebum production rates in man by measurement of the squalene content of skin biopsies. J Invest Dermatol. 1981 Oct;77(4):358-60.

* Byrd, A., Belkaid, Y. & Segre, J. The human skin microbiome. Nat Rev Microbiol 16, 143–155 (2018).

* Kei Ito, Kazunori Shinomiya, Masayoshi Ito, J. Douglas Armstrong, George Boyan, Volker Hartenstein, Steffen Harzsch, Martin Heisenberg,

* Uwe Homberg, Arnim Jenett, Haig Keshishian, Linda L. Restifo, Wolfgang Rössler, Julie H. Simpson, Nicholas J. Strausfeld, Roland

* Strauss, Leslie B. Vosshall, A Systematic Nomenclature for the Insect Brain, Neuron, Volume 81, Issue 4, 2014, Pages 755-765.

* Cross FR, Jackson RR. The execution of planned detours by spider-eating predators. J Exp Anal Behav. 2016 Jan;105(1):194-210.

* Richards, M.H. Tool use by foraging ants. Insect. Soc. 69, 1–2 (2022).

* Conway, John R. (1986), "The Biology of Honey Ants", The American Biology Teacher, 48 (6): 335–343.

* Mueller UG, Scott JJ, Ishak HD, Cooper M, Rodrigues A (2010) Monoculture of Leafcutter Ant Gardens. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12668.

* Kurzgesagt b. (2020). The Warrior Kingdoms of the Weaver Ant. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3QTAgHlwEg

* Wcislo A, Graham X, Stevens S, Toppe JE, Wcislo L, Wcislo WT (2021) Azteca ants repair damage to their Cecropia host plants. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 88: 61-70.

* Blonder B, Dornhaus A (2011) Time-Ordered Networks Reveal Limitations to Information Flow in Ant Colonies. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20298.

* Chalissery JM, Renyard A, Gries R, Hoefele D, Alamsetti SK, Gries G. Ants Sense, and Follow, Trail Pheromones of Ant Community

* Members. Insects. 2019 Nov 1;10(11):383.

* Hickling R, Brown RL. Analysis of acoustic communication by ants. J Acoust Soc Am. 2000 Oct;108(4):1920-9.

* The pherobase: Database of pheromones and semiochemicals. The Pherobase Database of pheromones and semiochemicals. (n.d.).

* Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://www.pherobase.com/

* Mammal species of the world - browse: Sapiens. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2022, from http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/biology/resources/msw3/browse.asp?id=12100795

* History of the combination of gas chromatography and Mass Spectrometry. American Chemical Society. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry.html

* Ho, S. (2008) The molecular clock and estimating species divergence. Nature Education 1(1):168 Retrieved November 13, 2022, from ttps://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-molecular-clock-and-estimating-species-divergence-41971/

1. ↑ Ehud halperin, CC BY-SA 4.0
2. ↑ CNX OpenStax CC BY 4.0
3. ↑ Jenett A, Schindelin JE, Heisenberg M. CC BY 2.0
4. ↑ April Nobile CC BY-SA 4.0
5. ↑ Polimerek CC BY-SA 4.0