Around the Quad
Linda Rayor Brings Monster Bugs to TV
For those who enjoy nature shows as well as Godzilla movies, a new TV series starring Cornell entomologist Linda Rayor is right up their alley.
Monster Bug Wars, hosted by Rayor, started its six-week run on the Science Channel on March 29.
Combining the fun of a classic 1950s monster movie with real science, it provided a ringside seat to some of nature’s deadliest encounters, from creepy crawlers devouring other creatures alive to the struggle of a bull ant using its lethal stinger to survive the suffocating silk of the redback spider—all in high-definition, super-magnified videography.
Rayor has transformed hundreds of Cornell students from arachnophobics into arachnophiles over the past 17 years through her Spider Biology course in the Department of Entomology.