RE: I will ask you questions
11-06-2014, 08:11 AM
Arthropods (let's call them bugs for the duration of this exercise) are an interesting set of things to have to ascribe a favourite, because of their sheer diversity (over 1 million species!) For the vast majority of people, choosing a favourite bug will invariably be a comparatively uninformed decision to, say, choosing an item from an exhaustive list/set like a menu at a diner, because I don't think anybody can consciously know about and comparae/qualify a million things. Unless you are insistent on making 100% informed decisions, this lack of complete awareness is ok!
Choosing a favourite bug is as simple as focussing your brain on the bugs you know you like, presuming that you're unlikely to have especial fondness for a bug you heard about once in passing (we're assuming you're a total bug novice here). You may have various reasons for liking a bug, from an incrediawful scientific name to how it behaves to it being the prettiest thing to brighten up your corner of the world, and all of these reasons are ok! Think of a bug, and if you can't think of any other bug you like better, then you've found your favourite bug!
Second-stage bugfaving for novices: If your search for a favourite bug yields you a common name like "mantis" or "dragonfly" or "butterfly", you can proceed to do your research and find out exactly what species of "mantis" or "dragonfly" or what have you has captured your affections, either because you see it around or you saw it doing cool shit on TV. This will hopefully give you more information about its particular habits and what makes it different from the myriad other mantisdragonbutterbeetles. Alternatively, reading about similar species may make you discover one that tickles your fancy more, if your metrics for "best" bug entail it being weird or obscure.
Advanced bugfaving: use the already-integrated categorisation/classification system of Arthropoda to narrow down your options, though this also has its limitations. The term "Arthropod" refers to all insects in a particular category in Biological classification, which formerly grouped things based on morphological similarity but is attempting to shift toward a reflection of monophyletic groups, namely, each group encompassing all the descendants of a now-dead ancestor. This is complicated by said ancestors being dead and an incomplete record of what was previously alive, but because evolution is a slow and building-on-existing-shit process we can similarly build on the morphology-based classification rather than tossing it out entirely. It's additionally complicated by convergent evolution making unrelated taxa evolve a similar body plan because it's the best fit for the survival job, but the guts of this Fave-finding system is that morphology is generally reflective of behaviour (though some taxa may exhibit a greater diversity than others).
To Bugfave like a veteran taxonomancer, firstly check out the five main subphyla of Arthropoda (Trilobites; arachnids, sea spiders and horseshoe crabs; centipedes and millipedes; crustaceans; insects) and find out what their general deal is and how many weird exceptions to the rule exist in each subcategory therein. You'll probably need to set up some parameters, for example (though you may ignore these as your own tastes dictate) Not Extinct, I Could Actually See One In My Daily Life, Brightly Coloured, Vicious Predator, Can't Kill Me, Could Kill Me, Grosses Others Out, etc etc etc. The taxonomic system makes a good framework to find the creatures that tickle your fancy, and lays out obscure groups you may not have initially considered like scorpionflies, sea spiders, or other weird shit. Of course, you can always go the lazy route and google "Bugs which are like _______" and get handy-dandy lists people have pre-assembled for your bugfaving benefit. The key point here is that this method best benefits from knowing what you like, and scrambling up and down the many-legged tree of life to find the little beastie that fits all those parameters.
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For finding your representative insect, you basically do the above but factor in cultural perceptions of said bugs, because there's no point choosing something like this then not telling anyone. Telling people and seeing their reaction/comparison/agreement or disagreement with your personal assessment is half the goddamn point, but is complicated by different groups of people having different relationships to the critters in question.
Bugs carry many cultural connotations, both positive and negative, and factoring these in is important! You may identify with a cockroach because of its much-maligned nature, or because you think you're tough enough to survive a nuclear apocalypse. You may identify with a mantis' raptorial grace and vaguely-alien physique, while some other jackass toting outdated information might call you a man-eater. (Funfax: female mantises probably don't eat their reproductive partners as often as initially believed. They were probably stressed out from pervert entomologists watching them go at it). This demonstrates that your choice of arthropod may not be about objective truth, but as much about popular opinion. If you feel being unfairly maligned (or hell, fairly maligned) suits you, though, feel free to point at a mosquito and say "that me." I'm not gonna stop you. Just bear in mind that while choosing an obscure insect order or "exception to the rule" like a hummingbird hawk-moth will require you to repeatedly explain yourself to strangers, a more common or generic hexappelation may be saddled with subtext you never really appreciated, because if there's a million types of bug there's gonna be a million times two differing perceptions of the fuckers.
For what it's worth, my favourite bug is the hummingbird hawk-moth (it's a bit uncommon though easy enough to spot where I'm living, it's weird as hell, it's kind of cute actually, it ranks harmless-to-beneficial for humans), and I would idealise myself as being represented by jumping spiders. In reality I'm probably actually a semi-solitary, non-cuckoo bee of some kind.
Choosing a favourite bug is as simple as focussing your brain on the bugs you know you like, presuming that you're unlikely to have especial fondness for a bug you heard about once in passing (we're assuming you're a total bug novice here). You may have various reasons for liking a bug, from an incrediawful scientific name to how it behaves to it being the prettiest thing to brighten up your corner of the world, and all of these reasons are ok! Think of a bug, and if you can't think of any other bug you like better, then you've found your favourite bug!
Second-stage bugfaving for novices: If your search for a favourite bug yields you a common name like "mantis" or "dragonfly" or "butterfly", you can proceed to do your research and find out exactly what species of "mantis" or "dragonfly" or what have you has captured your affections, either because you see it around or you saw it doing cool shit on TV. This will hopefully give you more information about its particular habits and what makes it different from the myriad other mantisdragonbutterbeetles. Alternatively, reading about similar species may make you discover one that tickles your fancy more, if your metrics for "best" bug entail it being weird or obscure.
Advanced bugfaving: use the already-integrated categorisation/classification system of Arthropoda to narrow down your options, though this also has its limitations. The term "Arthropod" refers to all insects in a particular category in Biological classification, which formerly grouped things based on morphological similarity but is attempting to shift toward a reflection of monophyletic groups, namely, each group encompassing all the descendants of a now-dead ancestor. This is complicated by said ancestors being dead and an incomplete record of what was previously alive, but because evolution is a slow and building-on-existing-shit process we can similarly build on the morphology-based classification rather than tossing it out entirely. It's additionally complicated by convergent evolution making unrelated taxa evolve a similar body plan because it's the best fit for the survival job, but the guts of this Fave-finding system is that morphology is generally reflective of behaviour (though some taxa may exhibit a greater diversity than others).
To Bugfave like a veteran taxonomancer, firstly check out the five main subphyla of Arthropoda (Trilobites; arachnids, sea spiders and horseshoe crabs; centipedes and millipedes; crustaceans; insects) and find out what their general deal is and how many weird exceptions to the rule exist in each subcategory therein. You'll probably need to set up some parameters, for example (though you may ignore these as your own tastes dictate) Not Extinct, I Could Actually See One In My Daily Life, Brightly Coloured, Vicious Predator, Can't Kill Me, Could Kill Me, Grosses Others Out, etc etc etc. The taxonomic system makes a good framework to find the creatures that tickle your fancy, and lays out obscure groups you may not have initially considered like scorpionflies, sea spiders, or other weird shit. Of course, you can always go the lazy route and google "Bugs which are like _______" and get handy-dandy lists people have pre-assembled for your bugfaving benefit. The key point here is that this method best benefits from knowing what you like, and scrambling up and down the many-legged tree of life to find the little beastie that fits all those parameters.
---
For finding your representative insect, you basically do the above but factor in cultural perceptions of said bugs, because there's no point choosing something like this then not telling anyone. Telling people and seeing their reaction/comparison/agreement or disagreement with your personal assessment is half the goddamn point, but is complicated by different groups of people having different relationships to the critters in question.
Bugs carry many cultural connotations, both positive and negative, and factoring these in is important! You may identify with a cockroach because of its much-maligned nature, or because you think you're tough enough to survive a nuclear apocalypse. You may identify with a mantis' raptorial grace and vaguely-alien physique, while some other jackass toting outdated information might call you a man-eater. (Funfax: female mantises probably don't eat their reproductive partners as often as initially believed. They were probably stressed out from pervert entomologists watching them go at it). This demonstrates that your choice of arthropod may not be about objective truth, but as much about popular opinion. If you feel being unfairly maligned (or hell, fairly maligned) suits you, though, feel free to point at a mosquito and say "that me." I'm not gonna stop you. Just bear in mind that while choosing an obscure insect order or "exception to the rule" like a hummingbird hawk-moth will require you to repeatedly explain yourself to strangers, a more common or generic hexappelation may be saddled with subtext you never really appreciated, because if there's a million types of bug there's gonna be a million times two differing perceptions of the fuckers.
For what it's worth, my favourite bug is the hummingbird hawk-moth (it's a bit uncommon though easy enough to spot where I'm living, it's weird as hell, it's kind of cute actually, it ranks harmless-to-beneficial for humans), and I would idealise myself as being represented by jumping spiders. In reality I'm probably actually a semi-solitary, non-cuckoo bee of some kind.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow