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Editor's note: Jason Sobel's blog from the WGC-CA Championship will return Saturday at 1 ET.
6:30 p.m. ET: Before the 2007 Masters, Phil Mickelson was asked about playing golf in the Tiger Woods era.
"It's a fun challenge to beat him," Mickelson said. "He's most likely the best player the game has ever seen. To be able to play against him in his prime is a great challenge. [But] if I have a great rest of my career and win 20 more tournaments and seven more majors to get to 50 wins and 10 majors, which would be an awesome career, I still won't get to where he's at today. So I don't try to compare myself to him."
Two years and five victories later, Mickelson still isn't any closer to catching Woods. And he's OK with that. Of course, he's also OK with being 10 shots ahead of the guy he has chased for so long here at the WGC-CA Championship.
That's right -- in case you're just tuning into the action at Doral, Lefty's 65-66 has him at 13-under and TW's 71-70 has him in a share of 35th place. Of course, look at the stats -- well, a few of 'em, at least -- and it would be tough to tell the disparity:
Lefty vs. Tiger
Of course, those numbers don't tell the entire story. Let's take a look at some other stats around the greens:
Short-game magic
Uh ... drive for show, putt for dough, anyone?
That's 14 fewer putts for Mickelson so far this week -- it's no surprise that he's so much higher than Woods entering the final 36.
That'll do it for the Round 2 blog here at Doral. I'll be back for Moving Day, as Mickelson tries to retain his lead and Woods attempts to climb the leaderboard. Until then, hit 'em straight ...
5:58 p.m. ET: E-mail from Sean in Dallas:
I don't think I've seen a blog posting about how Sergio's 72-72 make it look like he's unlikely to overtake TW, despite what looks like a middling performance by Tiger. I'd like to hear your spin on it.
Well, obviously Garcia hasn't taken advantage of what could have been a big opportunity. I mean, how often will Tiger finish 27th or lower? It could happen this week, but Sergio is even worse off.
That said, his quest isn't about just getting to No. 1 this week. This is a long-term thing. He'll also have a similar chance at Bay Hill and, likely, at Augusta. This story popped up for the first time this week, but it could be an ongoing subplot for much of the season.
5:48 p.m. ET: Some quotes from Tiger's post-round interview session:
On his round: "I just never got anything going. It's frustrating, especially knowing the golf course can be had."
On his second round compared to his first: "Today felt a lot better than I did yesterday. Just the flow of it, the feel."
On his distance control: "I haven't hit too many shots pin-high. I haven't played in this kind of wind in a while, in a tournament, at least."
On the stretching he was doing out on the course: "My right ankle is a little sore. It's just stiff. I haven't walked in a while."
On how he feels physically: "Physically, I'm as happy as can be. I wake up feeling great. All the training I've done, all the rehab I've done, has been great."
On how he is hitting it off the tee: "This is the way I've been driving it at home. I've been driving it well."
On Phil Mickelson's comment that he'd prefer to have Tiger on the leaderboard: "Me too."
On his chances this weekend: "Anytime you're trying to make up a deficit, you've got to get off to a quick start and you've got to have help. ... I'm not really in control of my own destiny."
On Prayad Marksaeng being low Thai so far: "He is. And I'm low Cablinasian, too."
5:34 p.m. ET: Woods does indeed make a par on 18. That's a 71-70 start; he's now 10 shots behind leader Phil Mickelson.
TW is in the scoring trailer -- well, the scoring hotel room, really -- but I'll try to pass along some post-round quotes when I get 'em.
5:32 p.m. ET: After Mike Weir nearly made an all-world birdie by chipping in from behind the green on 18, Tiger Woods' short chip from pin-high right rolls down the slope and stops about 2 feet from the cup.
He'll have that left for a 2-under 70.
5:25 p.m. ET: E-mail from my buddy Casey in Austin, Texas:
Mickelson is two shots clear of the field. He's also T-70 in greens in regulation -- in an 80 man field. Try to figure out Phil Mickelson. I dare you.
I have tried. Many, many times. And I can't do it. To me, the three most mystifying players in the world are Ernie Els, David Duval and Phil Mickelson. I never know what to expect from any of 'em at any given time.
Honestly, Phil could shoot two more 65s and win by 7 or not make another birdie for the final two rounds and neither would shock me.
5:17 p.m. ET: I've gotten this question many times throughout the day, but now that he's playing the final hole, I think it's more pertinent:
How many strokes back can Tiger Woods be heading into the weekend and still have a legit chance of winning?
Well, it's sort of a loaded question.
He can certainly come from 10 strokes back, which is the deficit right now. (It should be noted that ANYONE in this field has that ability, not just him.)
What should trouble Tiger right now, though, are two things: First of all, if he was 10 shots back but separated from the leader by only seven or eight players, his chances would be much better.
Instead, there are 40-something guys between Phil and Tiger. Secondly, it's not as if somewhat unproven guys -- at least in this level of tourney -- like Prayad Marksaeng and Jeev Milkha Singh are in the lead. Despite public perception of him, Phil Mickelson is indeed a closer, as backed by his 35 career wins.
So basically, it's not impossible for Woods, but it sure won't be easy, either.
5:12 p.m. ET: No practice stroke, no problem.
Tiger raps in the short birdie putt. He's at 3-under heading to the daunting 18th.
And I'm still not eating a divot.
5:11 p.m. ET: If Tiger misses this one, I'll eat a divot.
Wait, no. I take that back. After all, Mickelson had a 2-footer for birdie earlier today, but after I had already called it a gimme, he missed.
Well, TW now has one from the same distance for birdie on 17. I'm 99 percent sure he'll make it. But I've seen some strange things today. And eating a divot isn't really how I want to finish off this round.
5:09 p.m. ET: Some more notes on Phil Mickelson, courtesy of ESPN's research department:
• Phil Mickelson has never won a WGC event. In six previous WGC-CA Championships (also known as the American Express Championship), Lefty has been in the top 15 after two rounds only once, the first year in 1999.
Phil Mickelson -- WGC-CA Championship, after two rounds
2008 -- T-20th
2007 -- T-57th
2005 -- T-56th
2003 -- T-43rd
1999 -- T-9th
5:07 p.m. ET: Tiger Woods missed that birdie putt on 16, stays at 2-under.
It's funny -- reading his body language, it almost appears as if he's resigned to the fact that nothing is working right for him no matter what he tries. It's a frustrating notion for any golfer, but at least we all know where he's coming from.
4:58 p.m. ET: After Jeev Milkha Singh made double on his final hole to fall to 8-under, our new current second-place man is Nick Watney. This guy started the year outside of the top 200 on the OWGR, but vaulted up the list with his win at Torrey Pines in January.
And as I seem to mention every day, he's got one of the five sweetest swings on tour. When I asked him yesterday what the difference in his game has been this season, he told me without hesitation, "Putting."
I'm telling you -- and yes, I know I said all of this about 24 hours ago -- if this guy can roll his rock pretty well, he's going to be a superstar. The next step in his coming-out party could happen this week.
One other interesting note: Watney is a Butch Harmon disciple. If all remains the same, he'll likely play with Phil Mickelson tomorrow, who of course also works with Butch.
4:54 p.m. ET: After "laying up," so to speak, off the tee on the short par-4 16th, Woods hits a dart to about 10-12 feet. He'll have that left for birdie.
You'd better believe Tiger would love to grind out a few birdies here at the end of his round, so as to carry a little momentum into the final 36 holes.
4:41 p.m. ET: Getting many e-mails like this one from Rob in Parts Unknown:
Do you ever tire of talking about Tiger?! It's as if you have a Tiger quota that you need to reach on each of your blog entries. It's absolutely absurd.
First things first: As if to only prove any point I could make by writing about his popularity, right now at the 15th hole, there are at least three times more fans here to watch Tiger than when I was here a few hours ago with Mickelson, who just happens to be leading. I cannot overstate how much this guy drives the needle.
Secondly, his return to competitive golf after an eight-month layoff is the most compelling story in the game. Simply put, it deserves to be covered -- whether he's playing well or not.
And lastly -- and I'll be very honest here -- I've been getting mixed signals from fans in the thousands of e-mails I've received during the year's first two live blogs.
At the Match Play, when I produced an all-Tiger blog for two days, I heard all about how I should be writing on the other 63 guys in the field. Yesterday and for the early part of today, when I was covering the leaders and other stories, I heard from readers that all they wanted to know about was Tiger and nothing else.
I'm not complaining. Never said this blog coverage is an easy thing. But just want to let everyone out there know that you're in two very divided camps. And trying to please everybody is never going to work.
So, yes, I'll cover Tiger pretty diligently, but I will also write about the other 79 players here. It's a fine line and I'm doing my best to straddle it. Just wanted to let everyone know where I'm coming from ...
4:33 p.m. ET: I know a lot of people like to read more into the Tiger-Phil rivalry than is really there, but I don't think they care too much about each other's scores.
(Read that paragraph correctly: I didn't say they don't care for each other.)
That said, I can't imagine Woods would be too pleased knowing he's currently 11 shots behind Mickelson.
That's right -- Phil followed yesterday's 65 with a 66 and is now the leader by 2 at 13-under for the tourney.
4:26 p.m. ET: After switching clubs -- I'm guessing from 9-iron to wedge with a wind at his back -- Woods knocks his approach past the hole on 14 and reacts with a little two-footed bunny-hop deal to show his frustration.
And why not? Woods' ball hit short of the hole but never checked up, instead releasing to the back of the green, 32 feet away.
If there's one thing we've seen with his game in his first four rounds of the season that doesn't exude the Tiger of old, it's that his distance control seems to be off. This is a guy who may not hit it right at the stick every time, but if he's got 156 yards to the hole, he hits it 156 and winds up pin-high. That hasn't been happening so far in his return.
4:20 p.m. ET: I've written this before, but when Tiger Woods hits the ball, it just sounds different from any other player.
Seated about 20 yards in front of Woods, inside the gallery ropes on the right side of No. 14, I just heard Woods' 3-wood drive sizzle as it soared past my head. Neither Karlsson nor Weir had a similar sound with their drives.
4:16 p.m. ET: Woods has used the same Scotty Cameron putter for his entire career, but that doesn't mean he's not interested in what other guys are using.
Standing next to Robert Karlsson while watching Mike Weir clean up his par, Woods grabbed his playing partner's putter and took a few strokes with it in the air.
4:13 p.m. ET: Tiger nearly just pulled a Phil.
Just off the back of the green on 13, his chip barely missed rolling into the hole. That's a par for TW to remain at 2-under.
4:07 p.m. ET: After defeating Brendan Jones in the opening round of the Match Play, Woods spoke of how he was worried about stiffening up during a 20-minute wait on the 15th tee.
Well, he just had a similar wait here at the par-3 13th, but Woods didn't spend much time stretching. After the porta-potty, he simply sat behind the tee box chatting up playing partners Mike Weir and Robert Karlsson.
4:02 p.m. ET: Already informed you of Tiger's relative struggles on the par-5 holes. How much is that hurting him? Well, let's take a look in comparison with Rory McIlroy.
They've each now played all four par-5s twice. Woods is 3-under on these holes; Rory is 8-under.
On the par-4s and 3s combined, McIlroy is only three shots clear of Woods, but his proficiency on the par-5s has him at 10-under for the tournament, right in contention.
3:55 p.m. ET: It must be great being Tiger Woods ... most of the time.
And then there are times like right now, when TW is waiting for Robert Karlsson to finish up in the porta-potty near the 13th tee and he's got fans cheering for him.
At least he's got a sense of humor about it. After emerging from the porta-potty, he was asked for his ball -- er, golf ball -- from some fans.
"Can't do it," he said with a laugh. "This is my birdie ball."
It's true. Woods just made birdie with it on 12 to move to 2-under.
3:53 p.m. ET: Oops, he did it again.
Phil Mickelson just chipped in for the fourth time this tournament, making birdie at No. 7 to move to 12-under and into a share of the lead.
Anybody wanna buy an instructional video?
3:49 p.m. ET: E-mail from Angela in Parts Unknown:
Tiger looked good at Match Play the first day and in the CA Championship, he just doesn't seem to have his rhythm back. What does he need to do or work on to be prepared for the Masters. I think right now he is not mentally ready.
Nah, I'm not buying it. When I sat down with Tiger back in October, he told me that staying mentally sharp during an absence is the easy part; it's getting back physically that took time.
Could that have just been a line? Or maybe he didn't yet know the repercussions of such a layoff at that point? Yes and yes. But I still don't think that mental focus just disappears.
I'm more inclined to blame his relatively poor play on what he termed "loose" irons during the Match Play and a putting stroke that hasn't looked anywhere near as sharp as the one he owned while winning last year's U.S. Open.
3:44 p.m. ET: Heard on the course: "Man, if Tiger doesn't make a few birdies, he's gonna miss the cut!"
Once again, folks -- there is no cut at this event. Everyone is assured of 72 holes.
3:29 p.m. ET: E-mail from Ryan in Charlotte, N.C.:
Have you been able to see any of Tiger's play today?
Not on the course, but your wish is my command. I'm about to head out to catch him on No. 12 or so and see what's going on with his game ...
3:17 p.m. ET: E-mail from Steve in Cincinnati:
Put a fork in Tiger. He's done. He has done nothing and the field is running away from him.
I'm not ready to bury his chances just yet, but they're fading by the minute. For a guy who usually eats par-5s for breakfast, he's not doing too much on them this week in comparison with the field. He was 2-under yesterday, but after making a birdie on No. 1 today, he posted a par on No. 8 and just three-putted the 10th for a bogey. He's now at 1-under for the tourney -- 11 shots behind leader Jeev Milkha Singh.
As one of my colleagues just brought up, if there was a cut here, TW might be in trouble. The closest event, in terms of field size, with a cut is the Masters, at which the top 44 and ties plus anyone within 10 shots of the lead reaches the weekend. Well, right now Woods is T-47 and 11 shots back. If this was Augusta National, he may be trunk-slamming and heading down Magnolia Lane in a few hours.
3:12 p.m. ET: Two-Tone strikes back.
No, Henrik Stenson didn't remove any clothing today -- well, not that I know of -- but he did remove himself even further from the leaderboard. After an opening-round 69, Stenson was 2-over for his first nine holes today before making his initial birdie at No. 10.
There is good news, though. (Well, sort of. Depends on how you look at it, I guess.) I can confirm that video exists of Stenson's exploits on the third hole yesterday -- saw it with my very own eyes on Sky Sports, the Euro TV network. If I can find a link, I'll pass it along.
3:07 p.m. ET: Jim Furyk is currently at 8-under, just three shots behind the leaders. But he may not think he's going to win. Ever.
I mean, why else would he sell his place in Maui, just down the street from the champions-only season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship?
I kid about his perceived lack of confidence, but the story is true. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Furyk's five-bedroom single-level house, which was completed in 2005 and measures 6,400 square feet, is now on the market.
Asking price: $7.5 million. Or roughly 24 months salary for Furyk.
In the last two years, he has earned $7,609,760 on the PGA Tour.
3:02 p.m. ET: I haven't talked much about Jeev Milkha Singh today, but he's just cruising along with four birdies, seven pars and no bogeys through 11 holes so far. He's tied with Phil Mickelson and Prayad Marksaeng at 11-under right now.
Dude is like India's version of Fred Funk; he doesn't miss the fairway -- 8 of 9 so far today.
Could be a big year for the country. First "Slumdog Millionaire" wins Best Picture ... next Jeev Milkha wins a big event in the U.S.?
It could happen.
2:46 p.m. ET: E-mail from Michael in Parts Unknown:
Don't you feel scores are way too low for what is supposed to be somewhat of a "prestigious" event (WGC and all)? Is this course just that defenseless if you don't have real strong winds? Even when there was more rough last year, 17-under won. The Honda provides a tougher test.
Two things: First, don't think of the scoring in relation to par. If you want to do that, let's call the first and 10th holes each par-4s and then everybody will be eight strokes closer in relation to par at the end of the weekend.
Second, just because this is a prestigious event doesn't mean that the scores have to look like a U.S. Open leaderboard. It's OK to have a strong event in which birdies are possibilities rather than rarities. I wouldn't want it for every single big-time tourney, but once in a while, I'm fine with it.
2:41 p.m. ET: The good news for Adam Scott? He just birdied the third hole and is now 2-under for his last three.
The bad news? On a course where everybody is going low, he played the back nine -- his front side for the day -- in 6-over 42. That's two doubles, two bogeys and five pars.
And the numbers are just as bad as the score: He hit 1 of 7 fairways, 4 of 9 greens in regulation and needed a total of 16 putts (with no three-putts).
2:31 p.m. ET: Just spoke with a colleague who watched Prayad Marksaeng for holes 7 through 9. His assessment: "I didn't see him hit one good shot."
Marksaeng didn't score terribly for those three holes -- he went par-par-bogey -- but he did weather the storm.
And after starting the back nine birdie-bogey-par, he just sank a birdie putt on No. 13. He and Phil Mickelson are now at 11-under, one shot clear of Jeev Milkha Singh.
2:26 p.m. ET: Speaking of Stenson (again), here's another clue as to why he was forced to remove all his clothes yesterday.
Stenson apparently has much of his money invested in Stanford Financial and it's currently all frozen.
In that situation, there may not be much extra cash lying around for new pants and a dry-cleaning bill.
Nice to know he can still afford clean underwear, at least.
2:22 p.m. ET: E-mail from CJ in St. Paul, Minn.:
What would it take for Tiger to strip down to his boxers? I'm assuming it would have to be a very important shot at a major... How intimidated would the rest of the field be by the famed Tiger physique? Do you think he'd actually do it if his ball was in the mud, or would he just deal with muddy clothes? Does Nike have a wardrobe person that follows him around with extra clothes just in case?
I don't think it happens. Ever.
Really, TW's ball could be caked in mud or in a water hazard, he's just not doing the Stenson Streak.
Although as one e-mailer wrote to me earlier, apparently Nike does make undergarments -- some of which have Tiger's face adorned on them. Can't confirm that right now, but if it's true then perhaps it's just another marketing opportunity.
2:06 p.m. ET: I didn't see Rory McIlroy's approach into the difficult 18th hole -- he was in the group before Mickelson -- but observers told me it was a thing of beauty, landing about 3 feet from the hole.
"Boy Wonder" is now 8-under and two off the lead. Every single player who's been asked about this 19-year-old kid from Northern Ireland -- from Ernie Els to Geoff Ogilvy to Ian Poulter -- says the same thing: He's the real deal.
Don't be surprised if McIlroy leaps as high as No. 2 on the OWGR later this year.
2:03 p.m. ET: For much of last year, every time I saw Kenny Perry go low, I watched with skepticism. It's not that I didn't think he was a good player; I just didn't think he was THAT good.
Well, in recent months I've come around and changed my tune. Dude can flat play -- doesn't matter that he's two years away from the Champions Tour.
We got another example of that today, as he went out in 5-under 31 to get his name on the leaderboard.
1:58 p.m. ET: After barely missing the 18th green to the right, Phil Mickelson chips to about a foot and, yes, he makes the putt.
That's a solid 3-under 33 on the first nine holes for Phil. He's one shot behind Prayad Marksaeng, who is now at 11-under.
1:54 p.m. ET: Either somebody is spitting on me from the bleachers surrounding the 18th green or it's starting to rain.
Might be a little of both.
A couple of dark clouds above us right now, but it doesn't look like anything that's going to cause too much concern, with blue sky in every direction but directly overhead.
1:49 p.m. ET: Here comes Tiger ...
Birdie-par-par-birdie start puts him at 3-under for the tournament.
There's another reason Doral may "fit his eye" more than usual this week. Because of the recent temps here in Florida, the rough is only 2 inches -- less than twice what it was a year ago.
I'm standing in the rough right now and can tell you there's nothing penalizing about it.
For a guy whose biggest struggle is often his driving accuracy, he can grip it and rip it this week.
Or as Phil would say ... screw it.
1:42 p.m. ET: Looking like he was trying to hit a draw off the 18th tee to avoid the water hazard on the left, Mickelson produced an absolute knuckler, but got the desired result.
It wasn't pretty, but Mickelson should have a decent look into the green.
1:34 p.m. ET: I really didn't want to open up this can of worms, but as Phil might say, "Screw it."
As we head toward Happy Hour on a Friday afternoon, let's get a little giggly with our first haiku of the week, courtesy of Dan in Boston:
Lefty says, "Screw it.
I don't need no stinking Pelz.
Buy my DVD."
After a markdown (different from a Marksaeng) on price after the last hole, the DVD is now back to its full listing as Mickelson holes the 15-footer for birdie.
He's now tied (Thai'd) with Marksaeng at 10-under. And like I said earlier, win or lose, the dude is exciting to watch.
1:31 p.m. ET: Another tester for Mickelson's suddenly balky putter.
He just knocked a wedge to about 15 feet on No. 17. Looks like an uphill putt without much break. Very makeable.
1:26 p.m. ET: Since this is a WORLD Golf Championship event -- and even though all the regular-season WGCs are held in the U.S. -- there's a nice little perk here for some of the international players.
Well, their caddies, at least.
Each tee box is marked not only in yards but meters, as well. Obviously, most of these guys are pretty adept at the conversion rate, but it's just another very subtle thing that separates WGCs from other PGA Tour events.
1:23 p.m. ET: Uhh ... Blog Jinx.
OK, so maybe Mickelson's birdie putt was from 2 feet and not 1 foot. Still, it wasn't a tough one ... but he missed it.
Does anyone out here have a DVD player? I think Phil needs to watch a little short game instruction video.
1:21 p.m. ET: E-mail from David in Pittsburgh:
If Marksaeng wins, would this be the first PGA Tour event to ever end with a Thai?
David followed that question by saying, "You know you want to post this."
Actually, I didn't. But my hands were Thai'd.
(Ouch. Sorry. That one actually hurt to write.)
1:18 p.m. ET: Why does Phil Mickelson insist on going for the green at the short par-4 16th? Because his short game is good enough to make up for it if the strategy doesn't work.
Mickelson knocked his tee shot into the front left bunker, but pitched to within a foot of the hole and will soon tap in for a third-straight birdie to move to 10-under and presumably (there's no leaderboard on this hole) take a share of the lead.
1:16 p.m. ET: Speaking of Woods on the first hole, here are his updated career numbers there:
Times played: 26
Eagles/Birdies: 23
Pars: 3
Score in relation to par: -27
Birdie or better percentage: 88.5
1:13 p.m. ET: E-mail from Greg in Parts Unknown:
Tiger goes ahead and plants his drive 1 yard further (348 yds) than Lefty's on No. 1 yesterday. You know he probably did that on purpose.
Sure he did.
That extra yard obviously made all the difference. Whereas Mickelson made par yesterday, Woods just posted a birdie.
1:11 p.m. ET: Phil's going for it on the short par-4 16th. How do I know? His caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay, just asked everyone in the left side of the gallery framing the tee box to "move back 10-15 feet."
Impossible to see where Mickelson's tee shot just wound up, but he looks happy with his swing, once again taking it well left over the palm trees and water hazard.
1:08 p.m. ET: Phil Mickelson cleans up his second-straight birdie. He's now at 9-under, tied for second place with Jeev Milkha Singh, one shot behind leader Prayad Marksaeng.
I haven't seen Phil check a leaderboard recently, but if he does here's guessing those names won't have him too worried (whether he admits it or not).
1:05 p.m. ET: Andres Romero rolls in about a 30-footer for birdie on 15.
And immediately the crowd starts yelling his nickname, "Pigu," for which the English translation is ... nothing.
Really, he's been asked about it before and said it's just a name, but doesn't mean anything.
1:02 p.m. ET: An absolute dart from Mickelson on the par-3 15th. From the tee box, it looks like it's inside of 4 feet or so.
With his "screw it" stance on hitting driver and his renewed dedication to the short game thanks to the upcoming instructional video, the last remaining piece to the puzzle might be his iron play.
If he can keep hitting 'em like this, he'll be right in the thick of things come Sunday afternoon.
12:57 p.m. ET: Take that, Blog Jinx.
Mickelson calmly knocks in his birdie attempt on 14 -- he's back to 8-under.
12:55 p.m. ET: My pick to win this week is Andres Romero, who is also in this Mickelson group.
Currently at 5-under, he hit a squirrely drive with his 3-wood, but more than made up for it by knocking one from 190 yards or so to about 4 feet.
12:48 p.m. ET: Screw it.
Grip it and rip it.
Tee it high and let it fly.
Whatever motto Phil Mickelson chooses, it's working.
With me sitting directly behind him at 14, he took a huge swing with the driver and absolutely crushed one to about 85 yards in on the wind-aided 460-yard hole.
12:43 p.m. ET: The wind is definitely picking up out here on the course. Sitting on the 14th tee box, the empty folding chair next to me just blew over.
But as I mentioned yesterday, this will have less of an effect at this event than most others. Unlike tourneys with bigger fields, there is no morning and afternoon wave here; the tee times are more compacted.
12:37 p.m. ET: E-mail from Rick in Chicago:
Get a jump on the other media guys ... here is link to ask your questions to Prayad Marksaeng: http://translation.babylon.com/English/to-Thai and his response to you: http://www.thai2english.com/
I'll need your help on this one, folks. At 11-under, Marksaeng is gonna be a major story heading into the weekend. Let's find some good questions for him in Thai.
12:31 p.m. ET: Blog Jinx!
I mean, seriously, that might be the epitome of one right there. Just as I find Phil ... he blows one OB. He might want to have me removed from the premises before he starts making septies all over the place.
Speaking with Phil's PR guy a minute ago, he just told me, "I've been around him for a long time, but I've never seen anything like yesterday's round."
Say what you will about Mickelson, but he is NEVER not exciting to watch.
12:27 p.m. ET: Just caught up to the Mickelson group (he's playing with Andres Romero and Martin Kaymer) on the 603-yard, par-5 12th hole.
Lefty took a healthy cut from just off the right side of the fairway, but still couldn't get it there, leaving his ball in the front bunker with a front pin position.
No problem.
Mickelson pitches to within a foot and taps in. Unfortunately for Lefty it was for bogey and not birdie after he hit one OB.
12:16 p.m. ET: Walking past the back of the driving range on my way to No. 12 and well, gotta be careful here.
With only a 6-foot fence to the left of the range and no net in back, players who are hitting a dead pull can plunk a spectator while those muscling up can find the small pond out beyond the flags.
12:10 p.m. ET: Phil Mickelson birdied his first hole -- No. 10 on the course -- to move to 8-under.
Screw it.
I'm on the course, in search of PhillyMick ...
12:01 p.m. ET: I've always thought pros should practice like they play. For example, instead of hitting driver for 20 minutes, why not hit driver, then 7-iron, then hit a short wedge shot in order to replicate playing conditions on the course?
It's a concept one NFL team developed this past year (almost positive it was the Tennessee Titans), as they held practices like they would play in games -- a few minutes on the field, then a few off.
I mention this now while watching Camilo Villegas on the practice green. He's reading putts and rolling 'em, but isn't going into his patented Spiderman, lotus-position thing beforehand.
Granted, he may look a bit nuts doing that on the practice green, but why not warm up the way you're gonna play in the round?
11:57 a.m. ET: For the dozens of you who have pointed out that Phil is not the only player to hit wedge into a par-5 ... I knew that.
Tiger Woods did the same thing at Nos. 13 and 15 during the 1997 Masters. Just a quick oversight on my part. And yes, I'm sure guys like Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes have done it, too -- be it under much less of a spotlight.
11:53 a.m. ET: Maybe I'm imagining things, but it definitely feels a bit gustier here than yesterday, when there was more of a constant, consistent breeze. Right now it will be calm for 30 seconds, then suddenly blow 15 mph or so.
Changing winds are obviously more difficult for players to deal with than constant ones.
11:46 a.m. ET: OK, time to head out on the course. Like yesterday, expect posts to be a little shorter, but I'll get ya some more first-hand accounts of the action. Keep the e-mail coming ...
11:33 a.m. ET: E-mail from Timothy in Parts Unknown:
How about Paddy winning the week before St. Patty's Day? Could that luck o' the Irish push him to victory? And if so, will he break out in a Riverdance on the 18th?
Guinness for everybody! Actually, Harrington's drink of choice is John Smith's Smooth Bitter.
Harrington is now at 8-under after making eagle on his first hole -- the 10th on the course.
Can't believe he'll do a river dance, but yeah, right before St. Patty's Day that would be a special victory for him. And I guarantee you won't see one "St. Paddy's Day!" headline anywhere. Not one. No way.
11:24 a.m. ET: Speaking of the first hole ... it's a par-5 in name only. Playing 529 yards, it's really a par-4 -- especially when playing downwind, as it was yesterday.
In Round 1, it played as the easiest hole on the course with a scoring average of 4.175. There were five eagles, 57 birdies, 17 pars and just one bogey. The longest drive of the day came from Phil Mickelson, who belted one 347 yards and then did something I have honestly never heard of in a PGA Tour event: He hit a wedge into the green for his second shot on a par-5.
Of course, hitting wedge for your second shot doesn't necessarily guarantee success. Lefty missed his eagle putt then failed to clean up a shorty for birdie, making one of those 17 pars for the day.
11:21 a.m. ET: After his opening-round of 7-under 65 which gave him a share of the lead, Prayad Marksaeng didn't talk to the media. He's not a jerk; it's just that he doesn't speak English and his translator wasn't around.
(And believe it or not, none of us golf reporting hacks are fluent in Thai.)
That said, I've heard through the grapevine that he has an incredible story that consists of him growing up with about 10 brothers and sisters, sleeping on the floor of their small house and working his way into the golf profession.
We'll get into more of this throughout the day, because he is now your sole leader. With an eagle at No. 1, Marksaeng jumps to 9-under -- two shots clear of anyone else.
11:05 a.m. ET: Before getting to the new Henrik Stenson nicknames, Aaron on Daufuskie Island makes a very good point:
Don't worry about guys playing in their boxers or briefs until they can figure out a way to get all of their sponsors worked across the cheeks. Fortunately for us viewers, the guys who present the largest area for placing sponsor names are the guys least likely to want to strut their stuff. (At least, I hope that is the case.)
Uh-oh. I think the Titleist R&D guys just got an idea to start working on a new line of underwear -- with plenty of brand-name recognition, of course.
OK, onto the nicknames. First, the runners-up ...
From Donald in Parts Unknown:
Henrik Stainless
From Jason in Cleveland:
Hanes-rik Stenson
From Russ in Parts Unknown:
Heiny-rick Stenson
From Cary in Russell, Pa.:
The Streakin' Swede
From Tom in Parts Unknown:
Victoria's Nightmare
From Ray in San Clemente, Calif.:
O.B. Stake
From Paul in Harrisonburg, Va.:
TW (For Tighty Whities, not Tiger Woods)
And the winner is ... Patt in Sidney, British Columbia:
There you go: Good ol' Henrik "TwoTone" Stenson may need to hit the tanning salon au natural if he's ever going to shed his clothes -- and this nickname -- again.
11:00 a.m. ET: Missed my SportsNation chat? Check out the wrap up here.
10:15 a.m. ET: This is probably the place where I should break down Jeev Milkha Singh's stellar driving accuracy or Prayad Marksaeng's buttery putting stroke ... but, nah -- let's talk about the guy in his underwear some more.
Seriously, though, there's a rule on the PGA Tour that states all players must adhere to a dress code at all times -- one that very clearly includes wearing pants. But is it OK to remove those pants for one shot? And if it's OK for one shot, is it OK for two? And if it is, isn't that setting some precedent for all shots at all times? Hell, can't Henrik Stenson simply show up at the first tee in his underwear today? How far can this go?
Just about every round, it seems there's at least one player removing his socks and shoes in an effort to hit a shot from the water's edge. I can't imagine these players get fined for such instances. (Of course, the PGA Tour doesn't release information about fines and/or suspensions -- an archaic practice which deserves criticism any time I can dish it out.)
Now, if Stenson gets fined then a line has been drawn; no shoes is fine, no pants is fine-able. If he doesn't, well, all of a sudden it could turn into PGA Tour Guys Gone Wild, with players stripping down for every shot, knowing there would be no repercussions. I'll try to get an official answer from the tour today.
After yesterday's overwhelming response to the Doral naming assignment, I've got some more homework for you. We can't let Henrik get away with this whole incident without earning a new nickname. What should we call him?
Shoot me an e-mail at the address above; I'll post the best ones after the SportsNation chat. And like Stenson's shirt, pants, shoes and hat, let's keep it clean.
10:00 a.m. ET: Let's kick off Round 2 of the WGC-CA Championship blog from here at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa with some leftover news and notes from yesterday as we prepare for the next 18 holes ...
• I received a call from one of Phil Mickelson's people on Wednesday afternoon. He wanted to know if I had received my advanced copy of Lefty's new short game instructional video.
Told him I got it, but hadn't watched yet. And I said that -- maybe -- if Phil showed some short game prowess here, I could give it a mention in the blog.
Mission accomplished.
Call it synergistic marketing or just an awfully beneficial coincidence, but in the first round Mickelson needed only 20 putts and chipped in three times to grab a share of the lead.
But it wasn't just his short game that was working; Mickelson was pounding it off the tee, too.
"After hitting some poor drives, I said, 'Screw it, let's go. Let's hit it,'" he said. "I teed it up high and ripped at it, and I hit the longest, straightest drives I've hit, and that's what I've been doing. I've just been following that motto, and it's been great."
There you go, folks. Phil's new motto: "Screw it."
• What is the true meaning of life? Which religion is the best one? Henrik Stenson: Boxers or briefs?
At least one of those eternal questions was answered on Thursday, as Stenson stripped down to his boxers in order to hit a shot from the mud on the third hole.
"Obviously, playing in Florida I didn't have any rain gear in the bag so that option went out of the window and I felt like if I could hack it out, I could secure a 5 and that is what I ended up doing in the end," he said. "Because of the mud, I couldn't really afford to play in any of my clothes as they would have been a real mess down the last six or so holes so I had no option -- I was only wearing two things when I hit the shot, my jocks and my golf glove; that is the only thing that will appear in the picture aside from the golf club -- just the way God created me! Shirt, trousers, socks, shoes, hat -- the lot was off!"
He'll never hear the end of it. Ian Baker-Finch stripped to his skivvies years ago at Colonial and it's still talked about. In fact, last week while pondering a similar shot, Robert Allenby said, "I was going to take my pants off but I thought that Ian Baker-Finch, that scene had been shown so many times, and I know I've got better legs than him."
Big ups to Kyle Auclair, the only photographer on the scene, about whom Stenson said afterward, "I believe a photographer might have got some good shots of it -- he might make some money!"
Of course, he's got to be careful where he points that camera. As Stenson said, "You never know, after this I might have a new endorsement with PlayGirl or something like that!"
• I've been told the "Streak for the Cash" guy thinks Tiger Woods is going low today. Here is the prop bet for the game:
WGC-CA Championship (Doral Blue Monster -- Miami, Fla.): TIGER WOODS Second-Round Score?
--67 or lower
--68 or higher
I'm going with ... lower. I just think TW turns it up a little today and finally gets some of those putts to drop. If you listened to him after the round, you could tell he feels good about his game and is confident right now. Considering the low scoring around here, I think he's got a 66 in him today.
• I was at dinner with a few fellow golf writers last night when the conversation turned to Padraig Harrington, who one of my colleagues criticized for "not doing much" since winning the British Open and PGA Championship. My reaction:
"What are we supposed to expect from these guys? We tend to criticize those who don't play well at majors but win elsewhere; now we're going to knock a guy for only winning majors? I'm not going down that road."
After making a late decision to enter this tourney, Harrington shot an opening-round 6-under 66 to vault up the leaderboard.
• When I spoke with Ian Poulter the other day, much of our conversation revolved around his taste for fashion and the new Ian Poulter Design product line.
I asked him if potential consumers needed to sign some sort of "cool waiver" to wear his clothes.
"No," he said with a laugh. "They're for everyone."
Knowing I couldn't be turned down for approval, I picked up some Poulter duds at the Doral pro shop and must say I look like a dead ringer for the guy right now -- spiky hair notwithstanding.
• I can safely report that the Doral grill room was still buzzing with excitement into the early morning hours over the Syracuse/UConn six-overtime basketball game. Last call didn't occur until at least three minutes after the final horn sounded.
Keep checking back here throughout the day. I'll be chatting in SportsNation at 10:30, then posting minute-by-minute updates here in the blog starting at 11 a.m. Any questions, comments, suggestions or threats? As always, send 'em to the e-mail address above ...


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Mini-heart from ban.do
10 days of love: no. 8February 9, 2011
Limited edition Diptyque candles in Rose and Eros
10 days of love: No. 7February 8, 2011
A heart bowl from Paloma's Nest
[image from Paloma's Nest]
10 days of love: no. 6February 7, 2011
A For Love poster from Melangérie
Woodcut initials from Multi Polar ProjectsFebruary 7, 2011
Today's your last chance to order one of these adorable WhatWoodYouSay Valentine's edition woodcuts, and get it shipped out just in time for V-Day….get it in the fluorescent red, cuz its awesome.
[image from Multi Polar Projects]

subset: commoncrawl


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5 things to know before your institution starts publishing on Medium.com
July 26, 2016
Perhaps we in higher ed should consider motivating students to graduate by focusing more on what they have left to do than what they have already done, argues Alexandra W. Logue.
July 25, 2016
The increasingly intense pressure on faculty members to get federal grants has produced many undesirable consequences in higher education, argue Gordon G. Gallup Jr. and Bruce B. Svare.
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The Supreme Court ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin restores constitutional order to college admissions, writes Michael A. Olivas.
June 23, 2016
A prominent book championing the pathways approach to student completion at community colleges understates the deep resistance and possible unintended consequences such a restructuring could trigger, writes Mike Rose.
June 22, 2016
The reactionary responses to use of Spanish language at a recent commencement ceremony demonstrate the limits of institutional diversity rhetoric, argue Christina M. Ceisel and Vanessa Díaz.
June 22, 2016
A fascinating new paper sheds light on how note keeping was once central to the pedagogical experience, deeply embedded in the whole social system of academe, writes Scott McLemee.
June 21, 2016
The U.K.'s referendum on exiting the E.U. has the potential to significantly slow the growth of higher education at home and abroad, argues Christopher R. Marsicano.
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Tryst turns into $50K robbery for RNC delegate
Published: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 5:33 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 5:36 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Police are trying to find a woman who apparently drugged a Republican National Convention delegate and robbed him of about $50,000 worth of jewelry, cash and other items in his hotel room.
Gabriel Schwartz, a Denver attorney and party donor, told police he met the woman in a bar at the luxurious Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis and invited her to his room early on Sept. 4, a few hours after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin accepted the GOP vice presidential nomination.
Once there, police say, the woman made drinks and told Schwartz to get undressed.
The 29-year-old delegate told police that was the last thing he remembered. Police believe he was drugged but aren't sure what drug he was given, police Sgt. William Palmer said Tuesday.
When Schwartz awoke, the woman was gone and so were cash and belongings that included a watch he valued at $30,000.
"We have no doubt this happened," Palmer said. "The guy has been very forthcoming with us. He's been very helpful in the investigation."
The delegate gave police a detailed description, but investigators had no suspects, Palmer said. He stressed that investigators don't believe Schwartz did anything wrong.
"It's embarrassing to admit that I was a target of a crime," Schwartz said in a statement Tuesday. "I was drugged and had about $50,000 of personal items stolen."
"As a single man, I was flattered by the attention of a beautiful woman who introduced herself to me. I used poor judgment. If there is any good that can come from this humiliation, it is to caution others that date rape drugs can be used on men, too," he said.
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"That planet has bugs, Carter. Big, huge, ugly, honkin' bugs!"Giant bugs. They're bugs or muppets or Serkis Folk, whichever, but all are mad creepy. They have no individuality or intelligence, except possibly a Hive Mind. Nobody really worries too much about the morality of killing them. See also Giant Spider, Scary Scorpions, Creepy Centipedes, and Bug War. If they're from space, they're Insectoid Aliens. If they're from the sea, they're Giant Enemy Crabs. If they have a lust for galactic domination, they're a Horde of Alien Locusts. A subset of Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever and Dire Beast. These are especially common in prehistoric settings. Videogames (and Kaiju) seem to love combining this trope and Macabre Moth Motif. Some of them are also Proportionately Ponderous Parasites. Often led by a queen. Truth in Television back in the Carboniferous Period, but only possible due to higher oxygen levels at the time — such animals lack lungs and breathe, at best, via trachea stuck in the abdomen wrapped in carapace, so ones that get too big can't absorb enough oxygen to survive, and those that get a lot of trachea (centipedes) constantly risk dehydration. The Square/Cube Law also holds them down. These restrictions are somewhat averted underwater, however.
— Jack O'Neill, Stargate SG-1, "Bane"
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has several of these, most notably the building-sized woodlice known as the Ohmu. While they can be unbelievably dangerous when provoked, they're usually quite docile & even kindly, with the Ohmu being portrayed as extremely wise, Gentle Giants, akin to terrestrial whales.
- Lutecia of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S summons insects of varying levels of largeness. From the human-sized Garyu, to the car-sized Jiraiyo, to the Kaiju-sized Hakutenou.
- Mazinger Z: Overlapping with Animal Mecha, several Mechanical Beasts (such like Winder A2 or Megaron P1 and its "brothers") resembled giant, vaguely-humanoid insects.
- In Great Mazinger, one whole host of the Mykene Empire army were bio-mechanical, massive insects. Their commander, General Scarabeth, resembled a gigantic rhinoceros beetle.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!, several of Weevil Underwood's monsters, most notably Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth and Insect Queen, are textbook examples of this trope. Naturally, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series had fun with this one.
Yami Yugi: Go! Summoned Skull! Destroy his cheap Mothra imitation!
- Other duelists in the franchise who specialized Insect Monsters were Ren from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Uryu from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. (Both were one-shot characters.)
- The Magic World jungle in Mahou Sensei Negima! contains dung beetles that are around the size of a human torso.
- The entire Bugrum Empire of El-Hazard: The Magnificent World is absolutely crawling with these (Pun unintended).
- The Blue in Blue Gender all resemble giant insects.
- In YuYu Hakusho, the Demon World contains massive centipede-like monsters that dwarf trees and even some mountains. They serve as transport in Mukuro's realm.
- Up to Eleven with the Chimera Ants from Hunter × Hunter who are (in the Chimera Ant arc) human-sized ants and extremely dangerous. By eating other creatures, a Chimera Ant queen can impart the characteristics of ingested creatures onto the next generation of Chimera Ants it gives birth to. To take advantage of the genes of a particular species, Chimera Ants have been known to feed until the fodder species is driven to extinction in its ecosystem. That means, most of Chimera Ants don't look like actual ants, they look more like humanoid mixed-animals. The Chimera Ant King and his three Royal Guards are the most powerful living beings of the world. And only one of them is killed in a battle, while the other three, including the King, are killed by the poison of the Miniature Rose, a genocide bomb.
- Letter Bee not only have giant soul-devouring insects, but they also have exoskeletons made of metal to the point of Nigh-Invulnerability.
- Kimba the White Lion has an episode where a grasshopper was mutated by radiation and the end product was this trope.
- Also from Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy features several insectoid robots, such as the Carabus, a beetle-like tank built by the French military; Gadem the robot centipede and most incarnations of North Number Two from the Pluto arc.
- The Vajra from Macross Frontier range in size from large jet-fighter-sized grunts to ones larger than most capital ships. Their queen in particular is several kilometers in size.
- The bugs in Joujuu Senjin Mushibugyou. One bugs was big enough to have a bear in its maw.
- Tommyrod of Toriko somehow keeps an entire swarm of giant horrible insects in his own body. He's even created unnatural hybrid insects designed for maximum slaughter.
- An early part of Gintama has the gang dealing with some giant alien cockroaches that have invaded their house.
- "Them" from Kingdom.
Fan Works
- In The Legend of Total Drama Island, the scene where Lindsay is "cornered" replaces the canon cockroach with a large stag beetle - "harmless, but looking like something straight out of Hell." When Lindsay speaks of the incident a few days later, she innocently makes her "rescue" sound like "a pitched battle against a thousand-kilo, armor plated killing machine".
- The World of the Creatures has a colony of giant talking spiders in Chapter 8. A lot more almost certainly exist elsewhere in the world.
Films — Animated
- Creepy crawlies don't come any bigger (or cuter) than the 350-ft. tall Insectosaurus from Monsters vs. Aliens.
- The title character in A Monster in Paris is a flea that had been enlarged in a lab accident.
- Wreck-It Ralph: The Cy-Bugs are pretty huge, with some being as big as Ralph (he's nine feet tall, by the way) or slightly bigger. The biggest bug of all is the Big Bad's Cy-Bug form; he appears to be eighteen feet tall at the very least.
Films — Live-Action
- Them!, a classic nuclear monster movie about giant ants.
- The giant cockroach alien from Men in Black.
- The giant insects in the King Kong (2005) remake qualify, though it should be noted that the sequence was inspired by a Deleted Scene from the 1933 original which is currently a Lost Episode (though a period-faithful recreation of the sequence by Peter Jackson and co. can be found). Most were bizarre spider/crab or gut parasite/bloodworm Mix And Match Creatures, but the giant wetas were jumbo-sized versions of actual New Zealand insects.
- Speaking of giant New Zealand insects: meet the Little Barrier Island giant weta.◊
- Mysterious Island has giant bees, and a giant crab.
- Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger has a giant wasp.
- The Deadly Mantis has a...well, a giant Praying mantis 150ft long that flies at Supersonic speeds.
- The prawns of District 9 are basically like giant walking cockroaches. Though they do look a bit more like crustaceans.
- They are supposed to be called after the Parktown prawn, a kind of giant cricket.
- Godzilla:
- Son of Godzilla introduces Kamacuras, a giant mutant mantis who shows up from time to time as the Magikarp of Kaiju.
- And of course, there's Mothra, probably the most popular insect Kaiju out there.
- And Mothra's evil twin Battra, Megaguirus the demonic dragonfly, and Megalon the drill-armed stag beetle.
- Godzilla (2014):
- The "MUTOs" resemble large insects. Additionally, the Teaser Trailer Monster is described as resembling a centipede or a tardigrade.
- They're smaller than most of these examples, but the scarabs in The Mummy are bigger, and more bloodthirsty, than ordinary scarabs.
- The Black Scorpion is a 1957 film about giant prehistoric scorpions released by a volcanic eruption in Mexico.
- Beginning of the End is a 1957 film about giant grasshoppers attacking Chicago.
- Legion from the Gamera series is the biggest one by far, it's also a silicon based alien.
- Ticks has bigger-than-normal wood ticks due to pollution. Late in the film one giant-sized also appears.
- Both the original Clash of the Titans and the 2010 remake feature a pair of giant scorpions.
- The ant and the scorpion in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids are normal-sized, but due to our protagonists being miniaturized, end up having the appearance of Big Creepy-Crawlies onscreen.
- ManSquito.
- Big Ass Spider is mostly about, well, this really big spider running amok in LA, but The Stinger reveals that a giant cockroach is attacking the Statue of Liberty.
- Demonic Possession movies play with this fear as well. The way that a possessed person moves is often very insect-like, as are the chirping/growling noises they make.
- City of Ember has some oversized insects, probably to illustrate the effects of radiation on the wildlife.
- Deep Star Six features a giant eurypterid.
- The Gone series by Michael Grant has the bugs from Plague.
- J. R. R. Tolkien has a cartload of these, including Ungoliant (The Silmarillion), Shelob (Lord of the Rings) and the Mirkwood spiders (The Hobbit)
- Orson Scott Card uses this with the bug-like species systematically killing the crew of a human starship because, aside from the queens, their own species doesn't have free will, and they just assumed we'd be the same way. Subverted in that the bugs have bones, and that they're actually quite a nice and sympathetic, even naive (if occasionally creepy) species.
- Robert A. Heinlein used such bugs as a metaphor for Communism in Starship Troopers. They had a Brain Caste of very smart individuals and the warriors were as smart as they needed to be to fight effectively, but the workers were relatively mindless and instinct-driven. Which actually works pretty well as a metaphor for the USSR. In the movie, this was extended to the whole species.
- Subverted in Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth books, in which the insectoid Thranx are the principal allies of humankind. Not that the formation of this alliance went through without some problems (of the xenophobic terrorist variety).
- The Chi, neon-yellow arthropodoids, and Knnn, hairy black arachnoids, in The Chanur Saga. The latter are infamous for their nearly indecipherable Starfish Language.
- That's nearly indecipherable to another species with a Starfish Language that is, itself, nearly indecipherable to the more common run of humanoids. Without the intermediary, it is absolutely indecipherable. We can't even tell which vocalizations are actual attempts to communicate- many or most of them might just be the Knnn equivalent of singing in the shower.
- Ransom briefly encounters a giant fly and giant beetles in the caves of Venus in Perelandra. He's initially quite terrified at their appearance, but they prove to be no threat, and his fear quickly subsides.
- The giant alien insect species, Hetwan, in Everworld.
- The Taxxons in Animorphs.
- In the Brian Aldiss novel Hothouse, the Earth is so old that there are only five remaining non-plant species: tree-bees, plant-ants, tiger-flies (think wasps), termights and humans. They are all about the same size. (Slightly subverted because it's made clear that humans have shrunk over time, and the insects have grown and met them halfway.)
- Most of the Vord from Codex Alera, though the Vord Queen has a degree of Voluntary Shapeshifting and gradually changes from one of these to a Cute Monster Girl (though her personality never gets any more human, putting her squarely in the Uncanny Valley).
- In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series giant insects basically fill the niche in the ecosystem that mammals do in our world.
- Someone, somewhere, must mention the abominable squickfest that is Eat Them Alive by Pierce Nace. A mentally unbalanced ex-con exacts vengeance upon his former partners in crime with a horde of giant killer praying mantises. The entire book is nothing but page after page of giant mantises rampaging and eating people.
- In Piers Anthony's first Incarnations of Immortality book, On a Pale Horse, Zane, the incarnation of Death, faces a gigantic demonic preyingnote mantis.
- In Jurassic Park, giant dragonflies described as having a six-foot wingspan appear briefly in the aviary, without any explanation given for their presence.
- Subverted in Michael Crighton's Micro. The bugs are actually normal size, it's the humans who have been shrunk down to half an inch.
- The initially tiny ants in the Goosebumps book Awesome Ants gradually develop into this.
- In the gamebook Search for Dinosaurs, you meet some impressively large dragonflies in the Triassic period.
- They are a common category of roaming monster in uncivilized areas in The Balanced Sword, including the dreaded doomlock spiders, and a kind of giant carnivorous caterpillar thing.
- In The Stormlight Archive, virtually all wildlife in the world of Roshar is insectoid or crustacean. This is because Roshar gets one of the hypercane-like highstorms every few days, so only things that can weather repeated scourings can survive.
- The main antagonists in Grasshopper Jungle are giant, bulletproof praying mantises.
- One of the creatures encountered by the protagonists of The Taking is a massive bug hiding in a church basement whose features are a mashup of insects, spiders and scorpions. It drags one guy into its lair and messily kills him in the shadows followed by spearing another guy on its stinger.
Live Action Television
- Babylon 5
- The first season featured occasional appearances by N'Grath, a crime-lord who looked like a giant praying mantis.
- The Shadows are basically five foot tall spider people, a form also suggested by their spacecraft.
- Primeval has several appearance of giant arthropods and worms.
- The spin-off, Primeval: New World, also has a few nasty critters in it, namely the giant Jurassic beetles from "Fear of Flying."
- Stargate SG-1: In "Bane", SG-1 once encountered giant alien bugs that tried to turn Teal'c into a nest for more bugs. Long story.
Hammond (listening to dozens of impacts on the Stargate's iris): "What is that?"O'Neill (uncharacteristically panicked) "Those are bugs, sir! Really! Big! Bugs!"
- Stargate Universe: This is the show's pride and joy. They've had giant spiders, chestbursters, and even a dinosaur.
- Doctor Who has the stories "The Web Planet" and "Planet of the Spiders", among others. The queen spider was larger than a double-decker bus, man... Eugh.
- Giant spiders are back in the revived '05 series, in series 3's premiere/Christmas special The Runaway Bride in the form of the Racnoss Queen, and again in series 8's "Kill the Moon.
- The she-mantis in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the giant bugs in Angel's "Fredless".
- The ants from The Aquabats! Super Show! episode "Manant!" fall under this trope, as does the potato bug in "Pilgrim Boy!".
- The Insects from Lexx are wood lice as big as a small planet. The Lexx itself is an insectoid Living Ship the size of Manhattan.
- In The Bush Tucker Man Major Les Hiddins tells how in Australia's Northern Territory they talk of a mosquito so big it landed at Alice Springs Airport and was filled with a hundred gallons of aviation fuel before they realised what it was. Les finds it all rather unlikely. "I've never seen a mosquito that big. Ninety gallons yeah, but not a hundred."
- Power Rangers had insect and arachnid based Monsters of the Week up the yin-yang. In the first season alone, there was Spidertron, Weaveworm, Fighting Flea, Mantis, and Grumble Bee. The second season... Well, listing all of them would take too long, but suffice to say, bug-like monsters were popular among the villains.
- The Creature Feature song "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth", being that's it's a Filk Song of Them!.
- An unusually intelligent and benevolent example from the Happiness Stan cycle on The Small Faces' psychedelia Concept Album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake. A fly offers Stan a favour in return for a share of his meat pie; Stan is able to make the fly huge in order to transport him on his quest.
Mythology and Religion
- Beelzebub, the aptly named "Lord of the Flies" and Patron Demon of Gluttony, is often depicted as a gigantic flying insect◊. Of course, some writers state that Beelzebub is just a nickname for Satan.
Other Sites
- SCP Foundation
- SCP-363 ("Not Centipedes"). Under normal circumstances they look like the real life Amazonian giant centipede, which can grow up to a foot in length. However, if it's darker than dusknote they rapidly grow in size, and can easily grow to at least 30 feet in length and 6 feet in width. And not only that, as it grows it get new body parts, like tentacles and eyes.
- SCP-1575 ("Venus Statue"). When the water altered by SCP-1575 is drunk by a mammal, parasitic vermin infesting the mammal can start changing into human beings. They usually don't survive, but you can end up with half human/half flea or half human/half tapeworm abominations.
- True to the source, the Bugs in Starship Troopers all easily dwarf a typical Mobile Infantry human.
Tabletop Games
- The insect spirits in Shadowrun are Body Horrors that turn their host into a Big Creepy Crawly.
- Games Workshop games:
- In Warhammer40000 the original concept of the Tyranids was insects crossed with dinosaurs and while their look has developed more towards the latter they still retain a number of insectoid elements such as a Hive Mind, swarms, Queens and their six limbs.
- In Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Alarielle the Everqueen, Goddess of Life, rides into battle on the back of a Wardroth Beetle, a giant-sized combination of a stag beetle and a Hercules beetle.
- Several Insect creatures in Magic: The Gathering fall under this, most commonly seen in black and green. A non-black or green example is the Lithophage, an insect so huge, it consumes mountains.
- Dungeons & Dragons has had many giant insects over the years, including bees, wasps, and ticks.
- And manscorpion (sort of scorpionic centaur). And the antlike formians.
- The thri-kreen of Dark Sun are a desert-dwelling nomadic race of mantis-men. Many of them have psionic abilities.
- The Hivebrood are a version from Basic/Expert/etc D&D which doubles as The Virus.
- Araneas are giant (4ft long, 2ft wide) spiders originally introduced in Mystara. They're fully sapient, smarter than the average human, naturally adept at magic, and therianthrope-style shapeshifters, with a single inherent humanoid form as well as a natural spider form. Also, they're not Always Chaotic Evil but typically Neutral, admittedly tending towards being arrogant, manipulative jerkasses. In fact, they're an official player race in the Red Steel subsetting.
- Talislanta has a ton of freakish fantastic versions, such as flying leeches, snap-jawed worms, and hive-dwelling semi-humanoid scorpions.
- The Ungeziefer from GURPS: Urban Magic is a pitiable version of this. Formerly humans they're now giant cockroaches suffering from chronic depression.
- Werewolf: The Forsaken has the Nidmuzug, or, more plainly, the Unclean. Humans who ate food contaminated by the spiritual taint that all Nidmuzugs emit and found themselves turning into werecockroaches. Their hybrid form is a giant, humanoid cockroach that can have a poisonous bite or claw attack. Their "beast form" is a swarm of hundreds of cockroaches, all controlled by a single mind. Interestingly, they come off as quite miserable rather than scary (to the point where people who know about their personalities call them Kafkas). They lose absolutely none of their humanity in the whole Body Horror process, and they can't live among humans since light hurts their eyes. The elders eventually become estranged from their human sides, but given the general misery that is their existence, it seems more like Unclean who survive to that point used the logic of "You know what? Fuck you, I am a monster!"
- Then there's the more conventional creepies, like the Azlu, or Spider Hosts. They're spiritual parasites who infiltrate human bodies, consume the brain, and turn the body into a puppet. They can turn into giant spiders at will, and are almost singularly dedicated to strengthening the barrier between Earth and the Hisil... which you'd think would be a good thing, but with less traffic between Earth and the Hisil, things start to get spiritually barren on this side of existence, leading to general turmoil.
- Mortasheen sort of has this. They're called Arthropoids, and are technically Brundlefly-style mash ups of humans and arthropods. Some examples over here.
- In the Fantasy version Warhammer the Forest Goblins frequently use giant spiders the size of St Bernards as cavalry, as well as some the size of moving vans for their shamans and bosses to ride to war on, and with them being updated to 8th edition, they now come with the Arachnarok Spider, that is so big Games Work Shop not only had to come up with a custom base for it, it has a catapult as a fairly cheap upgrade.
- Monsterpocalypse has the Savage Swarm, which are giant radioactive bugs the destroy anything that has bright lights.
- Paranoia has the Giant Radioactive Mutant Cockroaches, at least in the goofier styles of play.
- In Rocket Age Venus has many species of giant insects including ants, the Trip Line Spider, giant dragonflies and wasps. Some of the small ones are even worse.
- Bleak World has Wereroaches, which are one of the only 2 werbeasts that can change at will (the other being werewolves) their beast form is a six foot tall cockroach, it is repeatedly noted that they are likely the strongest breed of werebeast, having the ability to fly and lift hundreds of times their own weight.
- Many of the rahi qualify, such as the Nui Jaga (giant scorpion) and Nui Rama (giant wasp-like creature).
- The Visorak, an army of giant intelligent spiders.
Video Games
- The bug-like Shivans in FreeSpace overlap with Insectoid Aliens. They are intelligent and possess extremely advanced technology, and their agility and strength means they don't so much creep and crawl as leap, smash, and throw armored soldiers around like toy dolls.
- They may also be cybernetic, and are permanent space-dwellers since their hind legs are configured in a way that only makes sense in free-fall.
- In Michigan: Report From Hell, the second report you're with can die from a big (relatively, it couldn't hide behind a beer can) scary spider if it jumps on her and bites. You can knock her out of the way, or if you see it enough it scurries off.
- Skrashers in Startopia: They develop aboard your station inside the trash-eating Memaus before bursting out as huge insectile monsters with giant claws to smash up your station. They can also turn up through a random event as a Shout-Out to Alien.
- Terraria has many examples, from antlions (including the rarely seen flying form) to underground worms to giant bees and hornets, and of course terrifyingly large spiders. If you're lucky, you can even get the honeyed goggles from the queen bee boss, allowing the player to summon and ride a slightly smaller giant bee.
- Resident Evil liked to play this by having giant snakes, tarantulas, and even a Black Tiger...a giant spider Capcom specifically redesigned from the Video Game Remake on so it looks like a Australian funnelweb to make Chris or Jill shit themselves.
- Drain Deimos and Brain Suckers (giant fleas) in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Reapers (giant bipedal roaches) in Resident Evil 5.
- In Resident Evil 6, according to the designers, all of the "combat mutations" for the J'avo are based on this; mantis-like sickle-claws, legs being replaced by spider-legs or the body of a giant moth, armor-plating based on clumps of sea lice, Combat Tentacles based on the body of a silkworm, replacing the head with a monstrous stag beetle or a cluster of three cicadas or the abdomens of two bees... Ironically, most of the "Complete Mutations" that pop out of chryssalids aren't insect-based, except for the one that turns the J'avo into a sentient swarm of giant bees.
- The antlions in Half-Life 2.
- The ChCh-t from the Deadlock series. They have a queen, pincer claws instead of hands, a scorpion tail, and all the other usual bug characteristics. They are also a playable race.
- The entire point of Deadly Creatures. Well, except that the creepy crawlies are normal sized, but you're playing as them.
- The Conduit has creepy crawlies of all sizes, but the big ones include the man-sized Drones, the eight-feet-tall Scarabs, and the tank-sized Invaders.
- The Zerg of StarCraft.
- Pokémon has a large number of Mons that are based off of insects or arachnids, and all of them are huge compared to those found in real life. The absolute smallest is Joltik, a 4-inch-long tick. More common Bug mons like Caterpie tend to be around the size of small dog. The largest? Scolipede, an eight-foot tall, 442 lb., roaring centipede!
- The Gohma family of boss monsters in The Legend of Zelda. Also, some of the other boss monsters as well...
- Zingers in Donkey Kong Country, which are often invincible barriers in levels, and have boss versions in multiple games. You get to explore a giant beehive too...
- Fallout games feature a handful of giant bugs mutated by radiation, including two-foot Radroaches, Radscorpions that grow upwards of six feet long, Giant Ants, some of which breathe fire, Cazadors (genetically engineered tarantula hawk wasps), and Bloodbugs, who are giant mosquitoes that suck your blood and spit it back at you.
- One of the worst of them is the Legendary Bloatfly, a simple bloatfly the size of Beelzebub with a Sickly Green Glow around it that hits harder and takes more to kill than the Legendary Deathclaw.
- World of Warcraft has, in addition to various giant spiders, scorpions and the like, the Silithid. These are a hive dwelling race with much variation (or possibly several sub-species) to fulfill different roles. The Old God C'Thun transformed some of them into the Aqir. The Aqir empire launched a Bug War to wipe out all non Aqiraji life, and on their defeat split into two different races, the Qiraji and the Nerubians. The first remained servants of C'Thun, and continued to launch Bug Wars against the rest of Azeroth. The Nerubians left for Northrend where they created an underground empire, which was destroyed by the Scourge. Although some materials describe them as being just as xenophobic and evil as the Qiraji, the entirety of player interaction with living Nerubians is friendly. They also abandoned the worship of C'Thun on the basis that it, "makes as much sense as a fly caught in a web worshiping the spider who is about to devour him".
- Mists of Pandaria introduced the mantid, a sister race to the Aqir, who served another Old God, Y'Shaarj; and they have a particular breed of insect called the kunchong, house-sized bugs with scythe-like arms. One kunchong uses its bulk to bash down one of the gates in the Serpent's Spine, the game's equivalent to the Great Wall of China, while an even bigger one smashes a huge hole in the wall itself.
- Junk Man's stage from Mega Man 7 contains several nests of cockroaches called Gockroach S.
- Quite a few Mavericks from the Mega Man X series are anthropomorphic, larger-than-normal robot creepy crawlies (Boomer Kuwanger, Morph Moth, Magna Centipede, Crystal Snail, Blast Hornet, Gravity Beetle, Web Spider, Shining Firefly, Commander Yammark, Ground Scaravich, Splash Warfly, Dark Mantis and Gravity Antonion).
- Many levels in Chapter 5 of Super Meat Boy are filled with large maggots. Often there are piles of them. The chapter boss itself consists of 3 of the largest maggots.
- Almost every single enemy in Let's Go Jungle!: Lost On The Island Of Spice. Most of which are Giant Spiders. In fact, the only three enemies that aren't creepy crawlies of some sort are the frogs, piranhas, and the Man-Eating Plant boss.
- The Earth Defense Force series pits players against a massive army of giant ants, spiders, and wasps, supported by Humongous Mecha.
- Tons of them abound in the Shoot 'em Up Bio-Hazard Battle, which takes place after a virus causes a planet's lifeforms to grow to massive proportions.
- Bug!! has insectoid Mooks the same size as the titular character, but it is subverted as the player character himself is a bug. Then you see the ending, which shows that Bug and the insectoid enemies (who are actually actors) are about half the size of a human!
- Guild Wars 2 features several variants of big arthropods, from the merely large to the truly gargantuan. One of the best-known varieties is the "devourer", basically a twin-tailed scorpion which proliferates throughout the Charr regions; these things can, especially if domesticated, grow literally as big as a house and can be used as mobile artillery platforms. (Devourer eggs, especially pickled ones, are considered quite the delicacy by Charr.) Sea scorpions (see the Real Life section below) are a common denizen of Tyria's salt-water seas. Overgrown spiders, mosquitoes, wasps and grubs are ubiquitous pests. On the other hand, rangers can tame juvenile spiders and devourers and adopt them as pets/companions.
- Leaving a house empty for too long in Constructor results in it being populated by an 8-foot tall cockroach that likes to walk around the neighborhood on two feet. Needless to say, the neighbors don't like them influencing their children.
- Some of the enemies in the Super Mario Bros. series games appear to be giant insects. The most notable examples would include Buzzy Beetles, which resemble reptilian beetles that act like Koopas, but cannot be killed with fireballs; Wigglers, giant yellow caterpillars that will become angry if stomped on; Mandibugs, giant beetles that charge at either Mario/Luigi and can only be killed with a Ground Pound, due to them having a large star on their backs; and Flipbugs, cowardly insects that will run away if they see Mario/Luigi, and falling over if they get too close.
- Super Mario Fusion Revival has a level (3-1: Viscuous Burrow) full of maggots about as big as Mario. Then you get farther into the level and have to avoid bigger ones...
- Mushroom Kingdom Fusion also has those man-sized maggots in Corpse of the Behemoth (4-7).
- In the Mutant Insects game of Combat Of Giants, you play as one of them. It is also a sort of exception given that the Player Character is trying to resist the Hive Mind.
- The Shadow Hearts series isn't a stranger to this trope. In fact, the giant roach monster (Buggs in the first game, Gregor in both Covenant and From The New World) hold the honor of being the only enemy to appear in every game of the trilogy. Other Big Creepy-Crawlies include Zosim (a wasp pupa infected by a parasitic snake), a flesh-eating centipede, large snails that feed on human blood, Megafilaria and Gigafilaria (magic-powered leech-like creatures) and Gatorback/Scorplinus (heavily-armoured scorpions).
- In The Binding of Isaac, there are lots of maggots in various sizes and levels of threat.
- The main enemies of Body Harvest are giant alien locusts - in fact, the average ones are about your character's size.
- Several of the enemies in Solatorobo, including one called the "bigant". Elh thinks they are horrifying and demands that Red kill them immediately; Red, for his part, says they are "harmless" (despite the fact that they try to kill you like any other enemy), but usually goes about killing them anyway.
- Although it probably isn't canonical (its counterpart in Tiberian Dawn wasn't), Command & Conquer: Red Alert featured what the fans called 'the Secret Ant Missions', so called because it is a hidden (small) campaign about giant ants. The red ants shoot fire.
- In addition to multiple varieties of giant spiders which are about knee height to a player character, RuneScape also has Kalrag, which is a spider much bigger than the human player character (and surrounded by the smaller giant spiders; that portion of the relevant quest is not good for arachnophobics), as well as several forms of giant cockroach, and some giant beetles called kalphite, which range from workers the size of the aforementioned giant spiders, to the building sized Kalphite Queen.
- Beetle Mania in King of the Monsters.
- Drones in the Halo series.
- In Bangai-O Spirits and Missile Fury, one of the enemy types that you face off with are giant ants (of varying sizes). For no particular reason.
- Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures has giant spiders and scorpions, about as big as Indy, as the weakest enemies in the game—at the easier difficulty levels they'll barely do any damage, and it's easier to simply ignore them.
- The largest family of Darkers in Phantasy Star Online 2 consists of insectoids that generally don't bear much of a resemblance to any kind of real insect in particular (Some exceptions being the Gwanada, which is an antlion, and the Dicahda and Predicahda, which are mantises.) They vary in size from the knee-high, locust-like Krahdas to the three-story tall Dark Vibrace, which looks like a cross between a Tyrannosaurus rex and a rhinoceros beetle.
- Mass Effect: Rachni resemble a hybrid of a spider and a prawn, but the Rachni Queen appears the most buglike. You also run into klixen a few times, which are crab-bug monsters the size of a man that breathe fire, and the Leviathan are shaped rather like cuttlefish but have a semi-insectoid appearance due to their thick plates and articulated, rather than muscular, tentacles.
- Factorio has the creatively titled bugs, which come in a variety of sizes, none of which are smaller than a man. The largest bugs are the size of a dump truck and can shrug off high-explosive rockets and flame attacks. Tiered walls, turret rings, and possibly ramming trains riding in circles around the base are necessary to prevent massed bug attacks from breaching into your factories and wreaking havoc with the delicate machinery. Bugs are made aggressive by pollution, so creating low-pollution factories inside forests can prevent them from attacking.
- Many of the monsters in Epyx's Temple Of Apshai fall under this trope, including giant centipedes, giant leeches, giant ticks, giant wasps, giant fire bugs, and giant mosquitos. Possibly justified as Apshai is described as a giant Insect God.
- Kirby:
- The recurring Bugzzy enemy is a giant stag beetle that attacks with wrestling moves. It also has a variant called Hornhead who was introduced in Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
- Also coming from Triple Deluxe, Queen Sectonia is an Insect Queen who is the Big Bad of the main game. She soon combines herself with the Dreamstalk so she can rule all over Popstar. Her servant Taranza somewhat qualifies aswell.
- It's implied that she wasn't always a wasp, however. In Kirby: Planet Robobot, a clone of her is fought in Meta Knightmare Returns and The True Arena. After she is defeated, she somewhat turns into a spider-like creature resembling her former friend.
- Monster Hunter has its fair share of insectoid monsters (known in-game as "neopterons"), from the merely large Konchus and Altaroths to the enormous Seltas.
- Bugs Vs Tanks probably qualifies. All the bugs in the game are normal sized... you're just really tiny.
- The Kitins of Ryzom are giant insects and shellfish that are largely responsible for the two Great Swarmings that have occurred in the game—one in its backstory, one in the game proper. They include the docile (and rather Ugly Cute) Kipee and Kiban, the Giant Flyer Kizoar and Kipesta, the downright terrifying (and huge) Kirosta, Kincher, Kinrey, and Kipucka, and the extremely rare (and extremely ugly) Kizarak.
- Many of the native alien creatures in Civilization: Beyond Earth resemble giant bugs. Wolf Beetles are the size of Terran wolves and exhibit similar pack behaviours. Drones are wasps that are bigger than men. Raptor Bugs are even larger, the size of horses, and colonies following the Harmony affinity can breed and train them to use as mounts. The in-game encyclopaedia compares the planet's ecosystem to that of Earth during the Carboniferous period.
- The Doom Beetle boss of Dragon's Crown is a monstrous beetle more than twice the size of your characters. It's also the adult stage of human-sized giant Worms that had been mutated by magic, so failing to kill these Worms before they emerge from their cocoons during the boss battle will make you fight even more Doom Beetles. However, there's one good thing about these Giant Worms: Their meat apparently makes for good eating, to the point that in the Treasure Art where you collect Worm cocoon sample for some researchers, adventurers specifically mention the giant worms as a convenient source of protein after the inevitable happens and the giant worms escaped into the wild and began breeding unchecked.
- In The Nightmare Before Christmas The Pumpkin King, a prequel game to The Nightmare Before Christmas, a good deal of the enemies and several of the bosses are giant insects or arachnids.
- Several of the Infernal Demons summoned by the titular character of the Bayonetta series are enormous creepy crawlies. There's Phantasmaraneae, a Giant Spider that lives in the magma pools of Inferno, and also Scolopendra, a demonic centipede that makes it's home in a river of boiling blood and is stated to grow up to six miles long! Both of these huge creepy crawlies make a return in the sequel, only this time as enemies instead of as summonable allies.
- Plenty of big creepy crawlies exist in the Metroid games. Even the metroids themselves have a few characteristics usually associated with bugs.
- Supa Robo Gakuen features giant cockroaches in one sidequest - large enough to act as summoners, not monsters, in a Mons game!
- One of the fighters in War Of The Monsters is Preytor, a mutated preying mantis that more or less is The Deadly Mantis. One of her alternate costumes is instead a winged ant.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has Chaurus, which are large, venom-spitting, subterranean insects often found domesticated by the Falmer. Like a cicada, when it reaches the end of its life cycle its body gives birth to a Chaurus Hunter, which is a more dangerous winged variety.
Web Comics
- Zimmy from Gunnerkrigg Court was briefly menaced by a large, insectile thing that may or may not actually exist.
- The warrior-type slaver wasps of Girl Genius.
- The Baron's Hoomhoffers, giant beetles around the size of tanks.
- The People-Eating Poly-Sorbate Insectoid (P.E.P.S.I.) from The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. It ate the main character once. But he got better.
- The entire cast of Daddy-Long-Legs is made up of anthropomorphic arthropods, the smallest of which are about human-sized.
- From Two Evil Scientists, Buzz's girlfriend Beedra.
- Commander Badass from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things is very uncomfortable around millipedes ever since his tour on the Millipede planet during Millipede season. He spent most of it literally covered in huge millipedes. The kicker was an encounter with a giant millipede that promptly vomited even more millipedes on his head. So of course his daughter got herself a pet millipede.
- The Free Spirit comic "Bedbugs and Broomsticks" has Winnie and her friends confront some giant bedbugs, who grew after sucking Winnie's magical blood.
- In Crossed Claws, The "Tall Things" turn out to be insectile monsters that can mimic mammalian species and possess some sort of control over plants.
Web Original
- Tech Infantry features the Arachnids, also known simply as The Bugs. Yes, they're shamelessly ripped off from Starship Troopers. But these versions are, if anything, even scarier. The Guardian Bugs, Emperor Bugs, and Queen Bugs are enormous, easily fifty feet tall. And those and the smaller but still deadly Warrior Bugs can use magic.
- The beetles in Spoilsbury Toast Boy range from normal beetle size to human size, with one about as big as a house.
- Reemus, of The Several Journeys of Reemus, tends to deal with these guys, which makes the fact that he's not quite as famous or well-respected as his dragonslayer brother just a bit nonsensical, since Reemus can and sometimes does take out entire colonies of giant beasties in his line of work, while his brother usually only gets one at a time.
- The Large Beetle from Water-Human, at least in episode one (later on, he gets smaller, which is explained by a Hand Wave). He's actually friendly and intelligent, and even is the protagonist's closest friend.
- The Motley Two has a giant beetlebeast with about dog-like intelligence, and a giant belligerent "mantid". Both of these are the lusii of the troll protagonists (in case you haven't read Homestuck, basically their pets/guardians/surrogate parents) and are scheduled to train to become BRAVE AND MIGHTY STEEDS once their owners are drafted into the army.
- Half the characters of Starship are Big Creepy-Crawlies, who implant their eggs in mammals and gladly give their lives for the hive and their Overqueen... and they're (mostly) good guys. The protagonist is a bug named Bug who talks and acts like he just walked out of a Disney movie, and eventually the audiences gets to see a small Bug War where both sides' POV is clearly shown: "OMG, these things are disgusting and gross! We've gotta destroy 'em before they destroy us!"
- Worm has Atlas, a gigantic hercules beetle created by Panacea that was capable of supporting a human in flight.
- You Have Become Your Avatar: One of things found in the Springfield between the border of New Mexico and Colorado is a gigantic termites' nest. The termites tried to attack Joshua and bRaHiAn because they were intruders, but they were easily beaten back. One of their biggest weaknesses is hot water.
Western Animation
- Ts-eh-Go from Godzilla: The Series, a massive Kaiju-sized scorpion that turned out to be the First Wave of a secret military project. The episode that featured it also had a swarm of smaller scorpions around the size of a human torso which was the Second Wave of the same project after the First Wave proved uncontrollable. Both were naturally disposed of by Godzilla and the episode ends with the revelation that a Third Wave of monster scorpions are currently under development.
- Jimmy Two-Shoes: Mosquitoes in Miseryville are the size of horses.
- The Martin Mystery episode "Terror from the Sky" had the protagonists deal with giant bugs mutated by a radioactive meteorite.
- Kickback, Bombshell, and Shrapnel from Transformers are all Decepticons that can turn into insects.
- Beast Wars had Inferno show up in the second season for the Predacons. Beast form, giant ant. Robot form, giant ant-headed robot whose abdomen turned into a flamethrower. Best known for thinking he was actually an ant, referring to their ship (and at first, just his pod) as "the colony," and referring to Megatron as "my queen."
- A majority of the Predacons took on insect or arthropod modes.
- The Insecticons are back in Transformers Prime, and they're bigger and uglier than ever.
- Beast Wars had Inferno show up in the second season for the Predacons. Beast form, giant ant. Robot form, giant ant-headed robot whose abdomen turned into a flamethrower. Best known for thinking he was actually an ant, referring to their ship (and at first, just his pod) as "the colony," and referring to Megatron as "my queen."
- Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects: The titular mutant space-bugs, which Big Bad Dr. Zin created from ordinary Earth insects (cockroaches, ants, etc.).
- The Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Courage in The Big Stinkin City" features Bushwik, a big, humanoid, talking cockroach. (And while he is scary, he is not the scariest thing in this episode, which is saying a lot, as it is one of the creepiest episodes in an already-creepy series.)
- In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode, "Lazy Daze", the Rockhopper crew encounters giant ants while out on a picnic.
Real Life
- The Giant Isopod definitely qualifies. A similar bug serves as a surprise boss in Twilight Princess.
- Giant insects/arthropods were common from the Ordovician to the Carboniferous period, with foot long cockroaches, seagull-sized Dragonflies, 8 and a half-foot long millipedes and 3ft long Scorpions. Foot long versions of these survived into the Permian period. This was only possible because the oxygen in the atmosphere was almost ridiculously high at the time, 2-3 times today's. Bugs absorb oxygen through pits in their body, their size is strictly limited by the concentration of oxygen in the air.
- For some years, the entomology department of the University of Illinois held an annual Insect Fear Film Festival, at which movies with Big Creepy-Crawlies were screened. After each film, members of the department would bring out live examples of the corresponding arthropods — large tarantulas and stag beetles were favorites — and pass them among the audience while they explained how the film Fails Biology Forever.
- The Giant Asian Hornet is the size of your thumb, can fly faster than you can run, and its sting has venom that dissolves flesh and has pheromones that call more of the damn things to attack you, and they live in and around major cities like Tokyo?
- They can sting multiple times, unlike honeybees.
- They also massacre honeybees. 30 giant hornets can kill 30000 honeybees is under an hour!
- To be fair, however, their larvae are delicious when fried. They taste like crab-flavored popcorn!
- Also Japanese Honeybees can outwit the hornets by luring them into the hive, swarm them and shake and bake. Most bees survive, the hornets are toast. However, the presence of the hornets has made it difficult to import more productive European honeybees to East Asia.
- The wingspan record among the butterflies is held by the White Witch moth, just under 300mm. On the second place is Atlas Moth spanning up to 262 mm. Of course, other than looking somewhat weird due to reinforced wing edges it's a fairly typical butterfly, so it has no mouth and can't bite you, so if one lands on your hand◊, all it can really do is to sit there or take off again.
- Normal weta, insects that look similar to katydids, crickets or grasshoppers native to New Zealand, are large enough at 4cm, but the giant weta can grow to a whooping 10cm in size, not including the legs and the antennae, and can weigh up to 35g. Largest reported cases have reached double those numbers and became the most massive insect known. This thing weights as much as 3 mice and can eat a small carrot all on her own.
- Scolopendra gigantea, the Amazon giant centipede. Centipedes are creepy enough, but Scolopendra gigantea is about a foot long. It occasionally can eat a toad or even a small bat. There's people who keep this as a pet or simply collect a few and let them hang around and feed on pests.
- If you're in the American Southwest, you may actually see a close and slightly smaller relative, Scolopendra heros. That's "slightly" smaller, not "small."
- Goliath beetles are the world's largest beetles, measuring between 2.4 to 4.3 inches long. They also have some of the heaviest grubs of any insect species, which can weigh in at a whopping 3 and a half ounces.
- The biggest arthropods of all time, the eurypterids (aka "sea scorpions") were marine cousins to modern arachnids, and they lived worldwide from the Ordovician to Permian. Even average-sized eurypterid species could grow 8 inches long, and the biggest exceeded 8 feet.
- Australia's infamous huntsman spiders, which boast leg spans of up to one foot.
- Megachile pluto, or Wallace's Giant Bee, is 1.5 inches long with huge mandibles which are used to build nests inside termite mounds.
- Stick insects wouldn't win any weight records, but they are among the longest insects, with some approaching or over a foot long. There's also the related giant leaf insect, which is typically between 4 and 6 inches long and around 3 or 4 wide; it looks like a leaf until you see it moving.
Quick, get the Raid! Lots of it!


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Since you were so picky about "exactly" what you said, I'll be too. I said close too.
But yeah, feel free to enlighten us how you would balance us for all those different aspects while restricting yourself to blizzards design philosophy. I'll shut up if I can't find something to pick on :)
Refusing to see what point? I said in that scenario it'd be necessary to BUFF warriors and not NERF mages. When did I say warriors were ever good or okay in competetive pvp?
So where don't I make sense to you?
You implied it..