Show Notes
Greetings from the void, bug lovers! Today's episode is a bit different in flavor... Michael and Jonathan met up this month for a dual family vacation and they are in search of the mythical Mothman! Join them as the delve into the world of cryptozoology and ask the question, why aren't there more insect cryptids? Check out the show notes to hear from John Acorn, entomology luminary, on this exact topic. Then, listen as they recount the tale of Mothman, who or what was he? Why were people in Point Pleasant, WV seeing him and what does he mean to a couple of entomologists with podcast gear? All this and more in this paranormal Arthro-Pod!*One word of warning! At the end of our discussion on Mothman, there is a strange issue with the audio that warps our voices. This was not intentional on our part. Perhaps we had disgruntled him and he took it out on our podcast gear!*The first indication we were in Mothman territory.Walking to the Mothman Museum, we encountered a Man in Black."Welcome to the museum"View inside the main room of the Mothman Museum.The museum has an impressive number of newspaper clippings about the Mothman sightings. I'm honestly surprised about how much coverage it got at the time.Paraphernalia from the Mothman Prophesies movie.Your intrepid hosts.Sticker graffiti we saw outside of the Mothman Museum. Goatman is a fair distance away from his home range in Prince George County, Maryland.This mayfly we saw on a window outside of the Mothman Museum was the only insect involved in this episode.Show notesJohn Acorn on entomology and cryptozoologyThe fandom wiki focused on "cryptids"Darwin's hawkmothQuestions? Comments? Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 and Bluesky @NapoleonicEntoGet the show through Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review!Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!
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Welcome back bug lovers! This is the first of a two part series about the history of fire ants in the United States and the ways we responded to their presence in the south. Colloquially these could be referred to as the "FIRE ANT WARS"! You can imagine your own pulse pounding beat to idea... In this episode, we unpack how fire ants arrived in the US, the sequence of events that led to red imported fire ant becoming so common, and the first forays into understanding this pest.
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