Daddy-longleg Deadly Weapons

Abstract

When I was invited to give a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Entomology in Brisbane, Australia, in August 2004, I knew I would have to take my family along. For years, my husband and daughter have good-naturedly vacationed with me while I attended meetings in far less enticing spots. Although we all had a great time in Alpine, Texas, and West Lafayette, Indiana, for example, neither city routinely ends up on lists of top 10 most popular tourist destinations. Thus, it seemed only fair, when the opportunity presented itself, to take them to a place that large numbers of people know they want to visit even if there’s no conference in town. The problem I faced was how to spend time with my family seeing what we could of Australia in the five days we were going to be there, while attending to my various responsibilities during the conference at the same time. The ideal solution appeared to be to hire a private tour guide, who could take us wherever we wanted to go, who could tell us interesting facts about the natural and cultural history of the area, and who could drive a car on the left side of the road without accidentally swerving into oncoming traffic or inadvertently shifting into reverse instead of signaling for a turn. So that’s how we came to know Terry Umstad, of SeeMore Scenic Tours, our personal guide to Brisbane. Terry met us at our hotel the day we arrived (after I had registered at the congress), to take us to Lone Pine Sanctuary, a nature preserve just outside the city where tourists can get photographed holding a koala—the consummate Brisbane tourist activity. After pointing out a few highlights on the way out of town, Terry asked what brought us to Australia. When I told him I was an entomologist in Brisbane for the International Congress, he proudly informed me that the world’s most venomous spider lived in Australia. Daddy-longleg Deadly Weapons