WOW - what an interesting talk and slide show we had from Dr Simon Pollard (author of “The Genius of Bugs”) on Wednesday.

 Although his specialty is spiders, he also talked about other animals/insects. I liked how the Japanese honeybees managed to get rid of their predator, the Japanese hornet by working as a team to “heat-ball” the hornet and cook it to death. Otherwise 20-30 hornets could kill 30,000 honeybees in three hours!

Some junior students who spend many hours in the library with their noses in a non-fiction book were then able to ask him some questions they had prepared.

What a great visit. Thanks Simon.

Hi Sarah

Thanks for organising such an excellent visit today.

A student Casey drew a picture of a spider for me. Please tell him, and show him the photograph (attached), that his drawing is in good company. It is next to a 115 year old teaching poster of a spider. (measures 1.3 m wide x 1.4 m high) which hangs in our entrance way at home.

Thanks again

Simon

Dr Simon D Pollard
Adjunct Professor of Science Communication
College of Science
University of Canterbury