MusingS
Diversity, Phenology, and Natural History
of Insects and other Arthropods in
The Far Side® by Gary Larson
F.W. Shockley
M
any entomologists would admit to
having opened a lecture, seminar,
or workshop with one of the many
amusing cartoons from The Far Side® comic
strip by Gary Larson. In fact, there is at
least one natural history course, an Honors
Course at Oregon State University (HC299),
taught using The Far Side® cartoons as
a source of course discussions on insect
diversity, behavior, pest management, and
human-insect interactions.
More than most writers, Larson constantly looked for humorous inspiration
from the natural world and fully embraced
the entomological community as a rich
source for his comic strip. Even after his
retirement from publishing The Far Side®
comics in 1994, his contributions to entomology by increasing public awareness
and making insects a source of amusement
rather than fear led to several patronyms in
his honor—one for a species of owl louse
(Strigiphilus garylarsoni Clayton 1989) and
another for a species of hairstreak butterfly
(Serratoterga larsoni Johnson 1991). Unfortunately, the latter patronym was later
synonymized with Calycopis pisis (Godman
and Salvin 1887) by Robbins (2004), but the
honor remains untarnished.
Although many entomologists are well
aware that Larson regularly published
entomologically themed comics, no one
has yet attempted to document all such
occurrences. With the publication of The
Complete Far Side® Collection, Volumes 1
and 2, by Gary Larson (2003), the full set
of The Far Side® cartoons are available for
the first time, organized chronologically
74
by original publication dates, allowing for
more detailed documentation and analysis
of the diversity (taxonomic and behavioral)
and phenological appearance of insects
and other arthropods during its 14-year
publication run.
Of the 4,300 comics surveyed, 359
(8.3%) contained an entomological reference (Table 1), i.e., at least one arthropod
visible, an entomologist present, or references to an arthropod behavior with or
without the arthropod present. At the subphylum level, most cartoons containing an
arthropod reference feature an insect (Fig.
1A). Spiders and spider webs were also
common, but were not featured as often as
insects. Within insects (Fig. 1B), Hymenoptera were frequently depicted (mostly ants),
followed closely by Diptera (mostly house
flies) and Lepidoptera (mostly generalized
and unidentifiable butterflies). Cartoons
including multiple orders were also common, as were cartoons illustrating insects
but with insufficient detail for accurate
determination.
Fortunately, Larson usually included
enough information in his comic or in the
caption to allow arthropods to be identified
to order and in many cases even to family
(Table 2), a testament to his ability to successfully anthropomorphize arthropod
subjects while leaving sufficient morphological features for identification. In 16
(4.5%) comics, the arthropod was identified
to species directly by Larson, either within
the body of the comic or in the caption.
Among different life stages, the adult stage
constitutes the vast majority of arthropods
depicted in The Far Side® cartoons (Fig.
1C), perhaps because the immature stages
were unknown (to Larson) and adults
were simply more readily accessible as
models for illustration. Depiction of the
adult stage over immature stages may also
be tied to the fact that the adult stage is
the most recognizable to the non-scientific
audience (the intended target of Larson’s
comic). However, recognition of the adult
over immature stages holds for entomologists as well, given the sharp decline in the
number of entomology courses focusing on
immature insects.
Besides looking for arthropods themselves, other interesting data were gleaned
from the analyses of the cartoons. For
example, entomologists (including nonprofessional insect enthusiasts) were portrayed 25 times (7%), and insect collecting
was referenced 24 times (6.7%). Out of the
359 cartoons included in this analysis, 40
(11.1%) contained an entomological reference only (no arthropod or entomologist
actually present). An even smaller number,
8 (2.2%), included arthropods or represent
arthropod activity but not as part of the main
subject of the comic (i.e., a spider web built
on the side of a skull in the desert).
De Jong (1994), sampling entomologically themed cartoons published during a
five-year period (1988-1993), found that
nearly 40% were attributable to The Far
Side®. Among all comics sampled, insect
appearance in cartoons was reported as
bimodal, with a peak in early spring and one
in early fall. This more complete analysis of
The Far Side® by itself revealed only mod-
American Entomologist  • Summer 2012
Table 1. Publication dates for The Far Side® comics that feature entomological references (n=359).*
01/01/1980
01/30/1980
02/12/1980
04/08/1980
05/06/1980
05/07/1980
05/08/1980
05/10/1980
05/16/1980
06/03/1980
06/25/1980
07/09/1980
07/23/1980
08/02/1980
09/17/1980
10/18/1980
11/18/1980
11/19/1980
12/10/1980
12/20/1980
12/23/1980
01/21/1981
02/13/1981
02/19/1981
04/01/1981
04/02/1981
04/24/1981
05/18/1981
06/12/1981
08/11/1981
08/12/1981
08/22/1981
08/26/1981
09/21/1981
09/23/1981
10/07/1981
10/12/1981
10/15/1981
10/22/1981
10/23/1981
11/09/1981
11/19/1981
12/04/1981
02/12/1982
02/15/1982
02/17/1982
03/13/1982
03/15/1982
03/17/1982
03/19/1982
03/22/1982
04/02/1982
05/06/1982
05/13/1982
06/03/1982
08/11/1982
08/16/1982
08/18/1982
09/30/1982
10/14/1982
10/19/1982
12/07/1982
12/10/1982
12/18/1982
12/22/1982
01/10/1983
01/24/1983
02/08/1983
02/12/1983
02/14/1983
02/25/1983
03/02/1983
03/09/1983
03/10/1983
04/19/1983
05/03/1983
05/27/1983
05/31/1983
06/14/1983
06/21/1983
06/30/1983
08/05/1983
08/15/1983
11/04/1983
11/09/1983
11/12/1983
11/16/1983
11/17/1983
12/20/1983
12/31/1983
01/04/1984
01/20/1984
01/24/1984
02/10/1984
03/30/1984
05/12/1985
05/28/1984
08/02/1984
08/13/1984
08/16/1984
09/04/1984
11/10/1984
12/13/1984
12/20/1984
12/22/1984
01/19/1985
01/30/1985
02/19/1985
03/08/1985
03/21/1985
03/28/1985
04/03/1985
04/09/1985
04/30/1985
05/16/1985
06/17/1985
06/18/1985
06/26/1985
06/29/1985
07/22/1985
07/31/1985
08/05/1985
08/08/1985
08/15/1985
08/16/1985
09/02/0985
09/05/1985
11/09/1985
12/03/1985
12/20/1985
01/03/1986
03/12/1986
04/04/1986
04/21/1986
04/30/1986
05/02/1986
05/03/1986
05/09/1986
05/15/1986
05/16/1986
05/22/1986
06/12/1986
06/17/1986
07/04/1986
07/06/1986
07/14/1986
07/18/1986
07/20/1986
07/26/1986
07/27/1986
08/09/1986
08/19/1986
09/29/1986
10/12/1986
10/21/1986
10/30/1986
11/02/1986
11/21/1986
11/28/1986
02/06/1987
02/12/1987
02/17/1987
02/20/1987
03/01/1987
03/27/1987
04/02/1987
04/05/1987
04/17/1987
04/18/1987
04/20/1987
05/04/1987
05/12/1987
05/13/1987
05/21/1987
06/16/1987
06/17/1987
06/24/1987
06/26/1987
06/28/1987
06/29/1987
07/07/1987
07/09/1987
08/06/1987
08/11/1987
08/12/1987
08/29/1987
09/07/1987
09/09/1987
09/24/1987
09/27/1987
11/14/1987
11/22/1987
12/23/1987
01/01/1988
01/19/1988
02/14/1988
02/24/1988
02/25/1988
02/28/1988
03/05/1988
03/21/1988
03/26/1988
03/30/1988
04/10/1988
05/02/1988
05/19/1988
05/29/1988
06/01/1988
06/04/1988
06/07/1988
06/09/1988
06/13/1988
06/27/1988
06/29/1988
07/01/1988
07/02/1988
07/16/1988
07/24/1988
08/06/1988
08/16/1988
08/18/1988
08/24/1988
08/25/1988
09/02/1988
09/05/1988
09/16/1988
09/19/1988
09/24/1988
09/27/1988
09/29/1988
10/04/1988
10/15/1988
10/23/1988
10/24/1988
10/26/1988
10/29/1988
01/31/1990
02/06/1990
02/23/1990
02/27/1990
03/20/1990
03/26/1990
03/28/1990
04/12/1990
04/22/1990
04/25/1990
05/08/1990
05/15/1990
05/18/1990
06/25/1990
07/05/1990
07/11/1990
07/12/1990
07/13/1990
07/17/1990
08/01/1990
08/28/1990
08/30/1990
08/31/1990
10/03/1990
* = Entries in bold are comics in which an entomological reference is used, but no arthropod is actually present (n=40).
est increases in the spring and the fall, with
the peak of arthropod-themed cartoons
occurring during the summer (Fig. 2A),
coinciding with the period when insect
activity is highest in the United States. As
in De Jong (1994), insect and arthropod
occurrence in The Far Side® was lowest
during the winter months, though never
ceasing entirely. Interestingly, if one looks at
the total number of insect cartoons by year
of publication (Fig. 2B), there was a steady
American Entomologist  •  Volume 58, Number 2
increase in the appearance of arthropods
in The Far Side® reaching a peak in 1988,
after which Larson took a year off from
publishing. Upon his return, this trend reversed as arthropod-themed comics steadily
decreased in frequency until the end of its
original publication run in 1994.
In addition to the impressive taxonomic
diversity in The Far Side®, Larson frequently
illustrated behaviors and/or activities in
sufficient detail to allow them to be broadly
10/09/1990
10/18/1990
10/24/1990
10/25/1990
10/26/1990
11/13/1990
11/20/1990
12/24/1990
01/28/1991
02/19/1991
02/22/1991
03/12/1991
03/29/1991
04/15/1991
04/26/1991
05/03/1991
05/08/1991
05/21/1991
05/23/1991
05/30/1991
06/07/1991
06/14/1991
06/18/1991
07/05/1991
08/08/1991
08/14/1991
08/20/1991
08/21/1991
09/27/1991
10/15/1991
10/21/1991
11/01/1991
11/08/1991
12/23/1991
12/24/1991
01/14/1992
02/03/1992
02/21/1992
02/28/1992
03/03/1992
03/13/1992
03/24/1992
04/07/1992
04/21/1992
05/08/1992
05/13/1992
05/22/1992
05/27/1992
06/05/1992
06/12/1992
06/15/1992
06/18/1992
06/22/1992
07/01/1992
07/16/1992
08/24/1992
09/16/1992
10/16/1992
01/15/1993
01/28/1993
03/03/1993
03/08/1993
04/22/1993
04/26/1993
05/07/1993
05/27/1993
06/01/1993
08/02/1993
08/03/1993
08/19/1993
08/24/1993
08/25/1993
09/06/1993
09/24/1993
10/12/1993
10/25/1993
11/03/1993
11/11/1993
12/01/1993
12/09/1993
02/17/1994
03/02/1994
04/20/1994
05/10/1994
05/20/1994
05/30/1994
06/13/1994
06/21/1994
06/29/1994
07/15/1994
09/05/1994
09/28/1994
10/14/1994
10/21/1994
11/03/1994
11/25/1994
12/08/1994
categorized (Table 3). Among these activities, predation was most often featured,
including comics in which the arthropods
were the predators as well as those in which
they were prey for something else. Several
other activities were also commonly featured, usually associated with a particular
taxonomic group. For example, eusociality
was regularly implied, almost exclusively
demonstrated using ants (e.g., trail behavior,
nesting, foraging, etc.). Ectoparasitism was
75
A
B
C
Fig. 1. Diversity of arthropods and insects represented in The Far Side® by
Gary Larson (n = 359 individual comics sampled). A. Arthopod diversity, by
subphylum. B. Insect diversity, by order. * = includes all comics in which
more than one type of arthropod is featured. C. Proportion of different life
stages. “Other immatures” includes all non-insect arthropod immatures,
as well as insect immatures for which the life stage was unclear.
Table 2. Number of cartoons in which the arthropod represented was identifiable to the family
level, by order. Cartoons with insufficient details for ordinal-level identification (n=27) or multiple orders present (n=26) have been excluded.
Order
Araneae
Opiliones
Scorpiones
Decapoda
Euphausiacea
Blattaria
Coleoptera
Diptera
Hemiptera
Hymenoptera
Isoptera
Lepidoptera
Mantodea
Odonata
Orthoptera
Phthiraptera
Siphonaptera
Total
76
# of Comics ID’d
to Family Level
5
0
0
6
0
0
7
42
5
71
2
11
7
0
6
1
18
181
Total # of Comics
42
1
11
8
2
7
15
67
5
73
2
39
7
1
7
1
18
306
%
11.9
0.0
0.0
75.0
0.0
0.0
46.6
62.7
100.0
97.3
100.0
28.2
100.0
0.0
85.7
100.0
100.0
59.2
featured a number of times, again nearly
always associated with fleas. Web production was also common and, not surprisingly,
always in association with spiders.
During the 14-year run of the comic,
Larson also occasionally used other entomological themes that did not involve
specific behaviors/activities on the part of
the insect or arthropod (Table 3). The most
common such theme was the depiction
of giant insects, defined here as an insect
human-sized or larger. Because Larson often
anthropomorphized his arthropod subjects,
making them appear to be human-sized or to
act like a human, recognition of a true giant
insect-themed comic usually required the inclusion of a human and/or human structure
for scale. Pest control was also often used
as a theme, whereas the remaining recognizable themes such as entomophagy (i.e.,
humans eating insects) and human-insect
American Entomologist  • Summer 2012
hybridization (e.g., the sci-fi horror movie,
The Fly) were infrequently used.
Through his unique view of entomology, entomologists, and the many different
makes and models of insects and arthropods
we enjoy, no other non-entomologist has
done more to shine a spotlight on insects
and make them tolerable to the general
public—or, if not tolerable, then at least a
little less scary and “squishworthy”— than
Gary Larson. With the publication of The
Complete Far Side® Collection, Larson’s rich
and diverse entomological world can now be
accessed in a way never before possible. His
cartoons will undoubtedly continue to bring
a hint of light-hearted comedy to introductory biology and entomology lectures for
many years to come.
Acknowledgments
I thank the ESA Editorial staff for their
assistance with this manuscript. I also
thank Bob Robbins (USNM) for clarifying the
status of Serratoterga larsoni Johnson 1991.
I thank my wife, Shannon, for reviewing
an early draft of this manuscript, and two
anonymous reviewers for providing their
helpful comments.
References Cited
Fig. 2. Phenology of arthropods in The Far Side® by Gary Larson (n = 359 individual comics
sampled). A. Number of comics containing entomological references, by month of publication.
B. Number of comics containing entomological references, by year of publication. * = 0 comics
published because Larson took a year off from publishing.
Table 3. Number of occurrences of behaviors and other entomological references depicted
in The Far Side® comic by Gary Larson. Numbers in parentheses are percent of total comics
surveyed (n=359).
No. of
Behavior(s)
No. of Occurrences
Other
Occurrences
Predation
57 (15.9)
Giant Insects b
25 (7.0)
Eusociality
49 (13.6)
Pest Control
20 (5.6)
Ectoparasitism
32 (8.9)
Entomophagy
5 (1.4)
Web Production
27 (7.5)
Human-Insect hybrid
2 (0.6)
Communication/Defense
13 (3.6)
Post-Apocalyptic Scene
2 (0.6)
Phototaxis a
8 (2.2)
Metamorphosis
7 (1.9)
a
b
Attraction to lights.
Defined as an insect that is human-sized or larger.
American Entomologist  •  Volume 58, Number 2
Clayton, D.H. 1990. Host specificity of Strigiphilus owl lice (Ischnocera: Philopteridae),
with the description of new species and host
associations. Journal of Medical Entomology
27(3): 257-265.
DeJong, G.D. 1994. Insect cartoons: when do
they appear in newspapers and magazines?
American Entomologist 40(3): 149-151.
Johnson, K. 1991. Neotropical hairstreak
butterflies: Genera of the “Calycopis/Calystryma Grade” of Eumaeini (Lepidoptera,
Lycaenidae, Theclinae) and their diagnostics.
Reports of the Museum of Natural History,
University of Wisconsin 21: 1–128.
Larson, G. 2003. The Complete Far Side. Volumes I & II. Andrews McMeel Publishing,
Kansas City, MO.
Robbins, R. K. 2004. Tribe Eumaeini. Pp. 118137. In Lamas, G., (ed.). Atlas of Neotropical
Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4A. Hesperioidea
- Papilionoidea. Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, FL.
Floyd W. Shockley received his M.S. in Entomology from the University of Missouri and his Ph.D.
in Entomology from the University of Georgia,
where he taught or co-taught a variety of courses
including Insect Taxonomy (Lab); Bugs in Food,
Film, History and Pop Culture; Insect Natural
History in Costa Rica; Entomology for Teachers;
and Integrated Pest Management. Currently, he is
a member of the collections management staff in
the Department of Entomology, National Museum
of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, DC ([email protected]).
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