My Science School

Did you know a black tarantula has been named after legendary American singer, songwriter and actor Johnny Cash? Scientifically called "Aphonopelma johnnycashi", this tarantula was discovered in 2015 near Folsom Prison, California. It was named after Cash in honour of his song Folsom Prison Blues."

The spider doesn't sing, but it's black and can be found near the California prison that was the setting of Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

The researchers also collapsed the number of U.S. species from 55 to 29, including Aphonopelma johnnycashi and Aphonopelma atomicum—named, with a wink to "Tarantula" and other sci-fi B movies, because it was collected near the atom bomb test site in Nevada.

"This is unequivocally the most important work on tarantulas ever done. It sets an incredibly high standard for taxonomy which few will be able to attain," Robert Raven of Australia's Queensland Museum wrote in an email after reading the paper.

The 340-page study by biologists Chris Hamilton and Jason Bond of Auburn University and Brent Hendrixson of Millsaps College "will be referenced for many many years," Raven said.

Credit : phy.org 

Picture Credit : Google

One of the most obvious impacts of global warming has been melting glaciers. When we speak of glaciers melting, we invariably discuss how it could increase sea-levels or wipe off habitats, negatively affecting humans and large mammals such as polar bears. But the melting affects even tiny creatures such as insects.

The Rocky Mountains, spanning the U.S. and Canada, is home to the western glacier stonefly and the meltwater lednian stonefly.

Their habitat is the streams that flow from melting glaciers and snowfields of the region. But all is not well. Their habitats are shrinking, and their numbers, declining. Scientists say that by 2030, these insects are likely to lose about 80% of their habitat in Glacier National Park in the Rocky Mountains. These are rare insects and they "require several thousand acres of glaciers and snowfields if they are to survive a warming world that's threatening them with extinction. The threat to these stoneflies is an indication of how climate change affects mountaintop wildlife, many of which are still being explored. The case of these stoneflies, listed as threatened species in 2019, is of particular concern because they are mostly found in steep. remote areas that are hard to reach" Hearteningly, a "new draft recovery plan from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests the possible transplant of some of the insects to new areas, exploring ways to artificially propagate populations and research into the stoneflies heat tolerance.

These are just two insect varieties, and why is there so much fuss over losing them to extinction? No matter what their size is or which part of the world they are in, insects have an impact on their surroundings. Just like all other creatures, they have unique ecological functions, and their absence gradually affects the plants, animals and even the humans around them. And the impact caused by the absence of these two rare insects will be no different.

Picture Credit : Google