Getting Up to Speed

AWHILE AGO, I RECEIVED A PHONE CALL from an editor at Ranger Rick Magazine, asking if I might verify a few facts for an insect story that was about to come out. This care and attention to accuracy came as no surprise to me-despite the fact that they're written for children, articles for Ranger Rick are reviewed scrupulously (I know this to be true because, the one and only time I ever wrote for the magazine-an article titled, "Watch out! Wild carrots!"reviewers caught an error that went unnoticed in an article on a similiar subject that went to a scientific journal for grown-ups). In particular, she wanted to know if the New Zealand weta (one of three species of very large stenopelmatid crickets) is heavier than the goliath beetle (one of several species of very large scarabeid beetles). Frankly, all I knew at the time was that they were both really big insects, and, with intraspecific variation being what it is, providing a definitive answer could be definitely risky. I hesitated to go with my gut instinct and say "goliath beetle," without first ruling out the possibility that, lurking deep within the jungles of New Zealand, there might be a morbidly obese weta with a glandular condition. Moreover, I really didn't think it should matter to people whether average wetas are a fraction of an ounce heavier than average goliath beetles. I know, though, as does the editor, that it really does matter. For reasons I can't understand completely, most people seem to care passionately about records. Students, for example, who complain about the burden of memorizing the names of insect orders can rattle off statistics about Michael Jordan's shooting percentage or Kerry Woods' earned run average at will. They're willing not only to commit these numbers to memory but also to update them as they change (hey, it's not like the names of the orders change over the course of a semester). The world is awash in records, and the most prominent keepers of records are, the people at the Guinness Book of World Records (GBWR). First published in August 1955,