Today, there are more (living) female entomologists in the U.S. than there ever have been. In the grand scheme of things, though, that's not really saying much; in the past 35 years, the percentage of the female membership of the Entomological Society of America has risen from about 3% to about 25%. Perhaps that growing percentage might account for a metamorphosis, if you will, of the image of the female entomologist in popular culture. Insect fear films aren't exactly an accurate mirror of society, but since their beginnings, male entomologists have managed to come off pretty well. In what's widely regarded as the first mainstream insect fear film, Them (1954), myrmecologist Dr. Harold Medford (played by Edmund Gwenn, who had played Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street seven years earlier), saved Los Angeles from a swarm of radioactivity-induced giant mutant ants, all the while minimally assisted by his daughter Patricia “Pat” Medford. Androgynous names like “Pat” for female scientists were staples of insect fear films back then (Noonan 2005), largely as a dependable source of hilarity at the moment when the ambiguously named female scientist meets the male protagonist, who always seems more surprised to encounter a scientist with two X chromosomes than a swarm of ants the size of Greyhound buses. Them was followed a year later by Tarantula (1955), featuring Dr. Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), who has devoted his career to developing artificial nutrients to feed the starving masses; the 30-foot tarantula he accidentally unleashes on his unsuspecting neighbors is just the unfortunate consequence of a noble …