Beetle mania for Hitler bug
QUESTION Is there a beetle named after Hitler?
When a tiny, brown, eyeless beetle was spotted in 1933 by German amateur entomologist Oskar Scheibel, he called it anophthalmus hitleri, which means eyeless one of hitler.
Scheibel was living in Slovenia and had been sent a specimen by a local collector. he realised it was a species new to science, a sub-family of ground beetles known as Trechinae.
he named it A.hitleri in a short paper published in 1937, explaining the name was ‘dedicated to Chancellor Adolf hitler as an expression of my veneration’.
The International Commission of Zoological nomenclature does not ban scientific names honouring genocidal dictators, so the name remains valid.
The nondescript beetle is in imminent danger of being collected into extinction by virtue of its name. neo-nazis regard it as memorabilia and pay inflated prices.
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich has had its collection of hitler beetle specimens stolen.
The insects are protected and you need a government permit to enter the handful of caves in Slovenia where they can be found. The cave system is also accessible across the border in Italy, where collecting insects is not illegal.
L.B.Franks,Shipston-on-Stour,Warks.
QUESTION Is there a rule that high jumpers must launch from one foot?
WOrLd Athletics high jump technical rule no 27.1 states: ‘An athlete shall take off from one foot.’
Jumping from two feet is an inferior action when leaping a bar, so the biomechanically superior technique has been mandated for coaching purposes.
Jumping off one foot converts forward motion into vertical motion better, so you can leap higher. The 1.9m record for the standing high jump (off both feet) is held by Sweden’s rune Almen. his one-foot personal best was 2.24m.
Two of the longest-standing world records are for the high jump: 2.45m by Cuban Javier Sotomayor (male) in 1993 and 2.09m by Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova (female) in 1987.
IanRyman,Walsall,W.Mids.
QUESTION What caused the abrupt closure of Holloway prison in 2015?
The largest women’s jail in western europe closed as part of a £1.3billion overhaul of Britain’s prison estate.
This followed a damning inspection that concluded ‘the size and poor design make it a very difficult establishment to run’. Built in 1852 as a mixed sex prison, holloway became women-only in 1902.
It saw the force-feeding of suffragettes on hunger strike and Britain’s last execution of a woman, ruth ellis, in 1955.
DavidAaron,Bradford-on-Avon,Wilts.
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