NATURAL WONDERS

THE TRUTH ABOUT ALIENS AND INSECTS

Rex Burress

Earlier in the summer our kitchen was invaded by a long column of small black Argentine ants. That episode finally subsided, but lately a half dozen large red ants patrol the counter-tops. They are rather placid and freeze when I approach as if they are tame.

Under the magnification of my triplex-10 hand lens, I was astonished when the horrific pincher-armed-head came into focus! The image was perfectly alien, as if a “War of the Worlds” monstrous creature had crawled forth from a spaceship! Now we know where movies get their monsters! Or Halloween its horrors.

We are accustomed to looking at squirrels, turtles, sparrows, and animals large enough to plainly see, even if the appearances of neighboring creatures might appear alien when compared to the human face. But the sudden enlarged engagement with insect heads, and even microscopic oddities, has a rather startling foreign flavor. If ants were as large as people there would be panic!

My son Ben reminded me that there were gigantic insects and other arthropods in prehistoric times when nearly everything appeared huge, grotesque, and alien to earth compared to the present.

Actually, there is a legend among the Hopi Indians that during some earth volcanic eruptions in ancient times, they were guided by strange forces to Ant People living in subterranean chambers who saved them. There are also stories of Egyptian Ant People with elongated skulls and spindly arms and legs said to be descended from aliens. The irony is that such strange skulls have actually been found!

There is a Greek legend of a nine-foot alien that resembled an erect praying mantis. In fact, there are hundreds of Greek mythological gods, dragons, gorgons and such listed, many having a link with alleged alien visitors to earth! Who helped build the Egyptian Pyramids? When it comes to human imagination, nothing is too weird to be imagined! When you don't have correct information, the sky's the limit. Look at the list of mythological monsters on Google's “List of Legendary Creatures.”

Even the movies are liberally sprinkled with horror-creatures, Hobbit curiosities, blob monsters, and worst, presenting giant killer-spiders as if real--a type of show that adds to the fear of harmless arachnids. Hot in Hollywood right now is 'Bloodied Zombies.' Ninja Mutant Turtles might qualify as alien, but turtles in general are usually loved. Halloween's a good time to be reminded of what apparitions have been appropriated from the insect world and the depths of confused minds to induce fear into people.

I will admit that I have diverted from the truth of nature to dream up some far-fetched stories to tell kids. Shame on me! But kids love those trips into fantasy, and seem able to sort it all out. “The Floating Eyeball, The Mole Man, and The Paper-Faced People” are some stories I have stretched! Part of that procedure is to give human personalities to things like Peter Rabbit, Reddy Fox, and cast, as presented by Thornton Burgess and his Little Bedtime Stories, and from which I have borrowed! Nature truths were the foundation for Burgess fantasy, however. Little Red Riding Hood is a gruesome horror fairytale vivid enough to scare a child witless, and not with much nature truth involved. You could go on to a myriad of Fairy Tales quite scary to a child. Why?

The Three-Headed Hydras were part of that Greek garble, as was the snaky head of Medusa, and, as in our modern microscopic world of freshwater hydras and planaria, cut-off heads were soon replaced. There was some truth in that “Three-Headed Hydra” myth, although I'm not sure if they had sufficient microscopes in those days to see real hydras fully, or understand their existence. Adequate optics are necessary for the study of under-water micro organisms, truly creatures to be wary of if as large as man.

There is some reference to “greyaliens” that feeds the UFO cult. Believers contend that such 'greys' crawled out of a crashed spaceship during the Roswell, New Mexico incident. Just as in primitive times, when ignorance promoted belief in Greek gods, forest spirits, and dragons, the 2015 existence of space-aliens is a pet theory for those inclined to slip some superstition between the gaps of the known and the unknown.

“Babies have big heads and big eyes and tiny little arms and legs. So did the aliens

at Roswell! I rest my case.” --William Shatner