Spineless Wonders According To Gibb Frass is Output Egg Reproduction Adult Eclosion Educating the Pupa Passion of the Larva

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 Spineless Wonders According to Gibb...
I have entitled my web site 'Spineless Wonders' in honor the group of animals that have inspired, fascinated, and challenged me throughout my entire professional career... the insects. Insects can be characterized, in part, by having an 'exoskeleton', a skeleton on the outside of their bodies, in contrast to the internal or 'endoskeleton' that we humans have and share with many other vertebrate animals. In this respect, insects are certainly spineless. The term 'spineless' or having no backbone, has also, on occasion, been used to describe certain people in a derogatory fashion.Please note that although my website is entitled 'Spineless Wonders' it is in reference to the insects that have I have studied NOT to the people I have worked with. Any negative connotation of the term 'spineless' whether correctly describing either myself or any people referenced herein, is strictly happenstance.

Any professional career is a compilation of challenges, failures, opportunities and triumphs. A successful profession is built upon interactions and relationships with others. A wise but relatively obscure philosopher once said, 'No professional career is an island' (Gibb, 1999). Indeed, it has been my good fortune in life to have had the association of many excellent mentors, capable students, and valuable associates throughout my career. As I review my life, it becomes apparent that I have either been unusually blessed with a constant comradeship of exceptionally fine associates OR with a poor memory because, as I look back, I only remember people that I really liked (the nerds, I may have just forgotten). In either case, I attribute most of my successes to the fine people that I have had the pleasure to work with. Although insects are usually the common link which initially brought us together, the interactions and friendships that I have developed with my colleagues are what has made my career. Some of those that I have worked most closely with are highlighted in this website. Others are not.

Overall, mine has been a very interesting career and one that I would not have changed one bit. From the day that I collected and mounted my first insect specimen, I have enjoyed this profession. I enjoy going to work and understand the essence of what some wise man (no, not me this time) once said. "Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life." I guess I would amend it by adding "except for Saturdays when your wife will boss you around the house and yard". Over the course of my career I have presented hundreds of talks and seminars to groups ranging from 1 to 4000 at a time. I have reached 1000s through various pieces of written material, advised many students, helped solve many pest problems, made recommendations to thousands of people on the telephone and if, through any of this, I have in some small way, either improved science or the world that I live in, I will consider myself successful.

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