Invertebrates: tremendum et fascinosum

under guest editorship of Magdalena Kozhevnikova

Invertebrates, which include animals as diverse as sponges, molluscs, insects, arachnids, nematodes, flatworms, rotifers and arthropods are probably the most underestimated group of animals. Considering that invertebrates make up about 97% of all creatures living on Earth today, we pay far too little attention to them. We get stuck in the anthropomorphizing paradigm and only look carefully and compassionately at those who are similar to us. Meanwhile, invertebrates are thrown into one bag of biological classification, regardless of their evolutionary differences. They inhabit all ecosystems and will surprise you with their richness of shapes, life strategies, and skills. They arouse disgust (like myriapods) or horror (like arachnids), but also delight (like butterflies) and intrigue (like octopuses).

Wishing to break the pattern, the editors invite authors to shed more light on invertebrates and the role they play in various ecosystems from the perspective of philosophical, sociological, cultural and literary studies, etc. The proposed topics include, among others:

• Invertebrates and humans: parasitism, alliances
• Unwanted invertebrates in the home and garden: insect extermination
• From arachnophobia to arachnophilia
• Mysteries of invertebrate minds (e.g. octopuses, ants)
• Invertebrates in the cuisines of the world; (un)ethical diets
• Invertebrates in literature and art; bioart
• Invertebrates and the world of technology: cyborg insects, artificial bees
• Beekeeping; protection of pollinating insects
• Experiments on invertebrates; Invertebrate in the laboratory.

Deadline for submitting articles for issue 2/2025: October 31, 2024.

Articles in Polish or English, which shall not exceed 30,000 characters with spaces, should be entered into the OJS:

https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/ZOOPHILOLOGICA/about/submissions.

Texts should be prepared in accordance with the editorial recommendations, which can be found on the “Zoophilologica” journal website under the link provided above.

Submitted texts must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere, either as a whole or in significant part.