Giant space Varroa
It always entertains me a little to see some obscure (to the average joe) biology in a relatively mainstream cartoon, and Futurama recently did a little short involving giant space bees (seen in an earlier episode) infested by giant space Varroa, a type of mite partly responsible for the dreaded "colony collapse syndrome" in real-world honeybees. They didn't call them by name in the show, but they portrayed them fairly well:
...They're missing one pair of legs, but we can let that slide.
It's too bad that Futurama's long-awaited return feels so underwhelming compared to its original run, but this isn't a cartoon criticism blog...it's a...something else...kind of...something blog.
...They're missing one pair of legs, but we can let that slide.
It's too bad that Futurama's long-awaited return feels so underwhelming compared to its original run, but this isn't a cartoon criticism blog...it's a...something else...kind of...something blog.
posted by Scythemantis at
3:57 AM
3 Comments:
Holy crap, I completely missed this episode. And PARASITES! YES!
I have to agree, though, this run is pretty underwhelming :(
If you'll pardon a little ranting...
I find it very suspicious that the military is now involved in the research on colony-collapse disorder. More than suspicious, really, frightening.
A number of years ago, Military Intelligence Officer Milton William Cooper exposed a secret plan by a government faction to gain total control over the country by engineering a nationwide emergency, which would allow for the suspension of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He speculated that an epidemic spread by bees could be the artificial crisis. After publishing his findings, he was shot to death by a government agent.
C.C.D. could provide the military with the perfect smokescreen for the introduction of a human-killing strain to honeybee populations. I hope someone is investigating this possible link.
They're missing a pair of legs because everything in Futurama is missing some sort of limb-related thing. It's an ongoing, subtle, dry joke about cartoon characters with four fingers. Octopuses (septopuses?) for instance only have 7 limbs.
Anyways, as I said, it's really dry, but it keeps going and it always amuses me when I see it.
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