Join Michael Skvarla of Penn State Entomology for a tour around the annual Great Insect Fair. 

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Spotted lanternfly is one of the most dashing and prominent invasive species in the United States. This colorful planthopper is known for feeding on tree of heaven (another invasive species...) and grapes amongst quite a few others. Though they are likely best known for being being big and colorful and for going to bathroom all over everything. Join the Arthro-Pod gang as they sit down with Dr. Julie Urban of Penn State to talk all about what has happened with SLF since she last joined us in 2021!

Show Notes

https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly 

https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly-frequently-asked-questions

https://cals.cornell.edu/new-york-state-integrated-pest-management/outreach-education/whats-bugging-you/spotted-lanternfly/spotted-lanternfly-reported-distribution-map

https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly-management-guide

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Hello bug lovers and welcome to another episode of Arthro-Pod! Today, we're going to the world of mites, specifically, we will talking all about the pyemotes itch mite. This teeny tiny biting pest has been making a splash in the news recently, with lots of people in Chicago and other Illinois city's complaining about their painful nibbles. We'll talk all about the seemingly mysterious origins of the oak leaf itch mite, how entomologists in the US were first introduced to it, and why it's making headlines in 2024. Tune in, we don't bit even if the mites do!

Show Notes

Mike talked about elm zig zag sawfly in our Catching up part of the podcast. If you want to learn more about the pest there is an upcoming webinar presented by Penn State University.

FREE Webinar on Sept 9: Frontiers in Forest Health: Elm Zigzag Sawfly

Link to Register: https://extension.psu.edu/frontiers-in-forest-health-elm-zigzag-sawfly       

If you want to read more about the non-native forest pest and see some good images, check out the article by Dr. David Coyle from Entomology Today in 2023

https://entomologytoday.org/2023/07/20/here-we-go-again-meet-the-elm-zigzag-sawfly-another-non-native-forest-pest/

Oak itch mites in the news

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/national-news/mystery-bug-bites-in-chicago-area-may-be-connected-to-cicadas/ 

Oak Itch Mites References

• Cloyd, R. A. 2019. Oak leaf itch mite. K-State Research and Extension. MF2806. https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/download/oak-leaf-itch-mite_MF2806
• Broce, A. B., Zurek, L., Kalisch, J. A., Brown, R., Keith, D. L., Gordon, D., Goedeke, J. Welbourn, C., Moser, J., Ochoa, R., Azziz-Baumgartner, E., Yip, F., and Weber, J. 2006. Pyemotes herfsi (Acari: Pyemotidae), a mite new to North America as the cause of bite outbreaks. 43(3): 610-3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16739423/        
• Glosner, S. E., and Kang, E. 2008. Pyemotes, the mysterious itch mite. U.S. Pharmacist. 33(5): 59-64. https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/pyemotes-the-mysterious-itch-mite             
• Grob, M., Dorn, K., and Lautenschlager, S. 1998. Getreidekrätze Eine kleine Epidemie durch Pyemotes spezies Eine kleine Epidemie durch Pyemotes spezies. Hautarzt. 49(11):838-43. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s001050050835          
• Jacobs, S. 2015. Oak leaf itch mite. PennState Extension. https://extension.psu.edu/oak-leaf-itch-mite
• Keith, D. L., Kalish, J. A., and Broce, A. R. 2005. Pyemotes itch Mites. UNL Extension NF05-653. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/extensionhist/1737/      
• Krantz, G. W. and Walter, D. E. (editors). 2009. A Manual of Acarology (3rd ed.) Texas Tech University Press. Pp. 78, 79, 314, 315.
• Kritsky, G. 2021. One for the books: The 2021 emergence of the periodical cicada Brood X. American Entomologist, 67(4):40-46. https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmab059
• Talley, J. 2015. Finally found: Oak leaf itch mite. Oklahoma State University Extension Pest e-alerts. https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/332675/oksa_pestealerts_v14n44.pdf?sequence=1
• Zaborski, E. R. 2007. Outbreak of human pruritic dermatitis in Chicago, Illinois caused by an itch mite, Pyemotes herfsi (Oudemans, 1946) (Acarina: Heterostigmata: Pyemotidae). https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/18258 

On today's episode, Michael is flying solo when he interviews Dr. Sarah Lower of Bucknell University. Dr. Lower is an expert on the evolution of signaling in the fireflies, one of the more popular group of insects we have here on Earth. Usually when people think of this flashy group, they visualize their ability to light up. Tune in to hear Dr. Lower talk about how not all fireflies are illuminated and her work with a pheromone for Lampyridae. 

Questions? Comments? 

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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!*

Show notes

John Acorn on entomology and cryptozoology

The fandom wiki focused on "cryptids"

Darwin's hawkmoth

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Today's episode is a twisted one! After meeting one of our listeners a while back, there was a request for a deep dive into the world of strepsiptera, aka the twisted wing parasites. This order of insects may not be a big one, but they do hold a lot of surprises. Mike leads Jody and Jonathan through a tour of their biology, taxonomy, and why they are so useful for students who are in an insect collection course. Tune in!

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Hello bug lovers! On today's episode of Arthro-Pod, the gang will be taking you on a journey through the first section of an insect's body, the head. This magnificent center for information gathering and processing has many wonderful adaptations of internal and external anatomy that it's truly a marvel to dissect and consider. Tune in to hear all about how the insect head came to be, what important processes occur in the head, and how fun it is to have your esophagus run through the middle of your brain!

Show notes

• Joro spider: https://jorowatch.org/  

• Link to 1975 Head Problem Paper 
• Antennae 
• Compound eyes 
• How bees see flowers: https://photographyoftheinvisibleworld.blogspot.com/2007/10/simulated-bee-vision-ii.html 

• Treehopper heads: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/treehoppers-bizarre-wondrous-helmets-use-wing-genes-grow-180973713/  

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Hello bug lovers and welcome back to Arthro-Pod! On today's show, the gang sits down with Dr. Eliza Grames of Binghamton University to talk about insects in decline. Terms like "insect apocalypse" are used in the media often and people have been asking Extension professionals about the gradual disappearance of things like fireflies and monarchs, Eliza helps to unpack what we know is happening with bug populations across the world. Plus, learn how scientists dissect huge stacks of data to better understand these declines and what fewer bugs might mean for things like birds. Tune in for all of it!

Show notes

https://elizagrames.github.io/

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023989118

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Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 and Bluesky @NapoleonicEnto

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Hello bug lovers and mosquito haters! On today's episode of Arthro-Pod, Michael and Jonathan delve into the long history between malaria and humanity. You won't believe the most famous folks taken down by this disease/pathogen! Plus we track the trail of malaria to the Americas and conclude the show with a discussion on the saga of malaria eradication in the United State's southern region. Tune in won't you??

• Humphreys, Margaret. Malaria Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Print.

• How four once common diseases were eliminated from the American South by Margaret Humphreys
• https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301065?journalCode=ajph 

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• https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/malaria/symptoms-causes/syc-20351184#overview 

• https://www.paho.org/en/topics/malaria 

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 and Bluesky @NapoleonicEnto

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Hello vault dwellers and bug lovers! On today's episode of Arthro-Pod, the gang dips their toes into the cultural zeitgeist to talk about the video game/television show "Fallout" and more specifically about the horrible mutated arthropods that exist in that universe. Tune in to hear about the biology of giant "radroaches", feel the sting of the "stingwing", and maybe befriend your own mothman. It's a lot of fun to look at the entomological basis and designs of these critters and hash out which of them are the best from our buggy perspective. 

Examples of bloodbugs as seen in Fallout 4. Via the Fallout Wiki.
Bloodbug as seen in Fallout 76. Via the Fallout Wiki.

A mirelurk, as seen in Fallout 3. This design is kind of a bipedal crab thing. Via the Fallout Wiki.
A mirelurk king, as seen in Fallout 3. This design is more fishman than bipedal crab. Via the Fallout Wiki.
A mirelurk as seen in Fallout 4. This design is more crab centaur. Via the Fallout Wiki.
A mirelurk hunter as seen in Fallout 4. Obviously based on a mantis shrimp, this is somehow the same species as the more crab-like mirelurks. Via the Fallout Wiki.
A mirelurk king as seen in Fallout 4. Another fishman design for the king. Via the Fallout Wiki.

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 and Bluesky @NapoleonicEnto

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