{"id":849,"date":"2021-06-15T08:16:38","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T08:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/?p=849"},"modified":"2021-06-24T07:54:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T07:54:55","slug":"arthropods-and-anthropos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/arthropods-and-anthropos\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthropods and Anthropos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yazhini Sathiamoorthy<\/em>
Stanes School\u00a0 ICSE\/ISC, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ignorance in the kitchen resulted in me being given more interesting things to do, such as plucking curry leaves for cooking. The plants were a little away from our house on the farm and the journey by foot to get a bunch of curry leaves is an exciting one. A curry-leaf errand or not, that place is one of my favourite haunts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With my eyes scanning my path and the tree trunks around, I reached my destination. As I started plucking, I saw some pairs of eyes directed at me. The \u2018some pairs of eyes\u2019 did not belong to different creatures; they belonged to someone with four pairs of legs. Yes, a spider! It was a Two-striped Jumping Spider, about the size of a five rupee coin. I carefully plucked the slender branch on which it was sitting. The spider moved around a little bit, going under one of the leaves and then coming up again. Now, it seemed to be looking at my hand, which was holding the bunch of curry-leaf branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Spanish proverb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider which was in my custody is infamous for totally wrong reasons. There are several WhatsApp forwards on the Two-striped Jumping Spider, which often resurfaces, claiming that this Indian spider, now all over the world, has a venomous bite that can kill humans. Such false news leaves both arachnophobes and arachnologists in distress. The very same spider was with me. It is a non-dangerous spider and its bite can cause no significant harm to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are some people so afraid of spiders and insects? Before that, let\u2019s clarify certain stuff first. Spiders are not insects. Spiders and scorpions fall under Class Arachnida<\/em> while butterflies, moths, cockroaches, ants, beetles, bees and wasps (all having three pairs of legs) comprise Class Insecta<\/em>. Centipedes and millipedes form Class Myriapoda <\/em>and Class Crustacea <\/em>primarily consists of crabs. All of these classes together form Phylum Arthropoda<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, going back to my initial question and amending it: Why are some people afraid of arthropods? Is it because of the extra number of legs? Is it because they bite or sting? Noted historian Yuval Noah Harari says in his book Sapiens <\/em>that we humans (or Anthropos) started disliking arthropods ever since the advent of agriculture. The Agricultural Revolution made us examine arthropods and many other creatures through the lens of suspicion. Some of them are nasty pests, of course, but many of them are harmless and some immensely helpful. Nonetheless, we had decided to shun most of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several arthropods deserve to be disliked anyways. Take mosquitoes for instance. Some mosquitoes don\u2019t let us sleep peacefully at night and others drive us crazy during the day. There are more serious reasons too: Mosquitoes are the world\u2019s deadliest animals<\/a> for humans because they are vectors for malaria, dengue, chikungunya, filariasis and so many other diseases. One of the United Nations\u2019 Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> is to \u201cend the epidemic of malaria in all countries by 2030<\/em>.\u201d Houseflies are considered enemies to public health and arachnids like ticks and mites are responsible for spreading zoonotic diseases like the plague from livestock to humans. Lice and bedbugs are abominable ectoparasites. Many arthropods are dreadful agricultural pests and the locust invasions in 2020 have left us in no doubt of that. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, 20-40% of global crop production are lost to pests (including nematodes and other pathogens apart from arthropods). For many, just a cockroach in the house is the last straw. \u201cWhy do these creatures even exist?\u201d one might ask in disgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 E. O. Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like there are heroes and villains among humans, there are heroes and villains among our arthropods too. Even mosquitoes are not altogether bad as they serve as pollinators and as food for many other animals. But since we need to control the population of mosquitoes, we should switch to insect-friendly methods of doing so. Damselflies are insects that resemble dragonflies but are different. The former close their wings when perched while the latter keep their wings outspread. Now, these damselflies live near lakes, feast on mosquitoes and are good pollinators too. Similarly, ladybugs feed on nasty agricultural pests like aphids. Farmers buy them by the sack and release them in their fields for their bio-control services. Spiders are very decent murderers that keep the populations of many insects under control. Even the much-despised cockroaches curb the spread of many bacterial diseases by eating leftovers. Some scientists say that it would be better for Earth if humans consume insects instead of meat. But I suppose it would take a long time before many of us accept this idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can never be grateful enough to bees, wasps and hoverflies (which mimic bees and wasps but cannot sting). Plants account for the highest biomass<\/a> on Earth and they certainly owe this to arthropods, especially pollinators, which have the highest biomass in the Animal Kingdom. So many creepy-crawlies: does that sound scary? The sad fact is that arthropods are facing a huge threat from Anthropos. Now, this is scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When was the last time you heard an insect-orchestra, the sounds of crickets and cicadas? How many butterflies did you spot during the past week? Maybe you did not notice them but people, scientists and researchers who have been observing and studying them say that they are in peril. All animals, including arthropods, are being marooned due to forests getting converted into farms and then into cities. What\u2019s worse here is that we have very limited data on arthropods. So, we don\u2019t even know the rate at which they are disappearing, but scientists warn that it is pretty rapid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only that but the creatures we particularly find repulsive are expected to multiply because global warming or rise in temperatures favours insects. It is feared that mosquitoes would increase manifold and lead to a 100%<\/a> rise in deaths due to malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural areas might end up swarming with locusts, instead of bees. Climate change might also lead to the evolution of more aggressive spiders. That is true, bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Bradley Millar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would also say that teaching kids and adults alike to stop fearing arthropods and to start observing them instead is beneficial for arthropods, Anthropos and the Earth. I have seen that people who are frightened of arthropods are too frightened to even approach them and people who are not are just brave enough to squish them. I was really scared of insects when I was small, so much that I thought twice before touching the photograph of a centipede or a spider in an encyclopaedia! Now, I am hunting for field guide books on arthropods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before talking about identification guides, \u00a0<\/strong>people with entomophobia (fear of arthropods) would want to get rid of their fear first. So here is a list of stories\/poems\/books which helped me find my inner entomophile (someone who likes insects)! Most of them are for children but can be ice-breakers for anybody willing to redefine their relationship with these much-misunderstood creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n