h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Amy, I just popped over to see how it's going.

Sorry Mugwump. I've been busy with my Children's Programming Languages article.

More fascinating facts about ants will follow. I promise.

I can understand your quandary Amy - you have lots of fascinating stuff to deal with. You lucky, lucky Ant!

I am a very fortunate invertebrate indeed.

Have you seen my "I am a pharaoh ant" page?

Goodness gracious, you have been busy. It's looking pretty good. I'm impressed! I like them both very much and I particularly like the look of your uncle's pad - that pip must have taken some shifting! I'll watch this space . . .

I think the article on pharaoh ants is taking shape now. It won't have all those headings in it when it is finished.

IT"S FINISHED.

Let me know what you think.

That's great Amy. I've had a look at a few other guide entries (about a dozen, I would guess) and some of them have been really interesting and entertaining. Bearing in mind that my view may not be completely impartial (because of my fondness for ants), I think your piece on Pharaoh Ants is one of the best I've seen. It's comprehensive, accessible and easy to read. You have a nice writing style. Your entry was well worth the wait. I learned several things, for example, I didn't know the little rascals could cause problems in hospitals, I didn't know they were so thirsty and I didn't know the males lived so long after mating. I feel I've been educated. Thank you very much!

Thank you, Mugwump. You are very kind. I will submit the article to be an official guide entry and see how it goes. Peregrin (ACE) has looked at it already and he thinks it is OK.

Hi! Just dropping in to say hello, how's it hanging?

Also, not an official question, but have you considered becoming a Scout? I think you'd be good at it.

And, if you have a moment would you like to comment on my new Library and Museum at http://www.h2g2.com/A413290?

Oh, and I sent you a message the other day about the Natural History Museum. Have you received it?



Amy

That's just fabulous. I've spent about an hour and a half over at your Library and Museum and I don't suppose I've managed to see more than a tiny faction of the material in the various rooms. You have been busy - just like an Ant to toil quietly away unnoticed until an impressive wonder has been fashioned (usually out of more humble materials like mud, ant-spit, beetle legs and leaf fragments). I'm very impressed - and not for the first time.

What's involved in being a Scout? I wouldn't have to wear one of those khaki uniforms and fiddle with a woggle, would I?

I'm going to put a link to your lovely library on my page tomorrow if that's ok with you. Please.

Ooh, thank you for the link. The Library and Museum, and especially the Natural History Museum, are being terribly well received. I'm very pleased.

Being a scout is not too onerous. We're still making it up as we go along really. We each have one day a month on which we can recommend articles from the Peer Review Page http:www.h2g2.com/PeerReview and at other times we wander round making useful comments and trying to find articles that people are too shy to put forward.

There is no uniform but you can play with your woggle if you like. Dib dib dib, dob, dob, dob!



Amy

The job not being too onerous seems to me a very good selling point. Onerousness is my least favourite quality in any job. I'm considering it. If it's the sort of thing I can do irregularly (which I would assume is probably the case) then, yes, I do believe I'm interested in scouting. I've found the relevant pages and I'm nipping off to read them now.

By the way, I found this passage in Richard Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow and I thought you might like it (though you may already be familiar with it): "Species of tiny mite are specialized to ride at a precise location on the inside of the pincer-like mandibles of a particular cast of army ant worker. Another species of mite is specialized to ride on the first joint of one antenna of an army ant. Each of these mites is shaped to fit its precise habitat, as a key fits a lock." Wow, isn't evolution amazing?

Anyway, dib dib dib, dob dob dob!

There ain't no mites on me. I'm fastidious about my personal hygiene. I do have a specially trained troop of head lice for security work but I refuse to reveal my sources.

Join the Scouts and get to play with your woggle!



Amy

You mean you prefer lice to mites? I have to confess that I'm fond of woodlice but I've never managed to find a head louse that I could take to in the same way. I envisaged the mite on the first joint of the ant's antenna rather like Jiminy Cricket - friendly and helpful. Didn't occur to me that the little mite might be unhygienic.

I've decided to give the scouting idea a whirl but rather than jump in at the deep end, I thought I'd cautiously dip my toe in the water and just try looking at things others people have recommended and offering my 2p worth. Then I'll nose about looking for interesting, well written items and recommending them as an ordinary Mugwump. When I get the hang of it, I'll get my kit on and jump in for a splash about up the 3 metre end if the scouts will have me. Does that sound like a sound plan?

It's a very good plan. I think most of us started out that way. The heap's pretty thick now. Dig deep and find us some gems!

My duties as Security Advisor for our feathered friend and future president, Peregrin the Peregrine took me to The Millennium Dome last week.

One of the best exhibits was a nest of leaf-cutter ants. The guy on duty told me that leaf-cutter queens often live for more than twenty years in captivity and the oldest died at the grand old age of 27!!!

Amazing.

Yes, it's amazing. I knew leaf-cutter queens could live for more that 2 decades but 27 years seems just incredible. They regard the little fire ant colonies as more or less immortal because having multiple queens, as superorganisms, they never die. Admirable little critters!

I see your page is still a busy place - ever changing. I had a look at the ants on the move. I think they must have been very young. They followed my pointer everywhere, little darlings. The ant test told me I was a true-blue redant and a red-hot something or other. I added the myrmecology site to my entomology favourites. AND you've got my picture up. I'm deeply honoured!

If you haven't come across it yet, have a look at Parapluie's entry on the Oxford English Dictionary. It found its way over to the Peer Review page yesterday and it's a real treat to read. I expect you would have found it anyway, but just in case ...

Hi Amy - fantastic site
Just wondered if it is ok to reference you in a degree project for my finals
if it's cool - how do i reference a web page or do you have an article I could reference?
cheers