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9.05.2011

Arachnids: Spiders, Mites, Ticks, and Scorpions


Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects, a new book by Amy Stewart

Arachnid: any of a class (Arachnida) of arthropods comprising chiefly terrestrial invertebrates, including the spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks, and having a segmented body divided into two regions of which the anterior bears four pairs of legs but no antennae .
Arachnophobia: Illogical fear of arachnids.

Did you know that body lice undid Napoleon's Army? For every human being on our planet, there are 200 million bugs? Or, that local etymologists had years earlier warned of termites eating away at the levee's (made up of sugar cane waste), which were ultimately breached prior to Hurricane Katrina. Scorpions are visible with infrared light at night, they are present year-round in Arizona where half a million people are bit each year - and a new scorpion anti-venom has just been developed.
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