Despicable you

- "the term is gendered" (it's not, and feminine equivalents were sometimes created specifically for the purpose)

- "they didn't actually do things as knights" (who didn't? The Hatchet women fought the Moors. A few other Orders had women as masters of arms. Both martial and formal examples)

...and a few other reasons that come down to "I don't like imagining my manly men in steel had women in their ranks, girls have cooties".

And the reason I say this is because recently, Wikipedia updated their page on "Knight", specifically adding a section about women with the title of knighthood, and what function they performed. And I know: "Wikipedia is not an academic source"--but every academic institution will accept the sources and articles used to back up wikipages, which confirm what has been said.

I saw this and needed to answer.

The gendered versions of 'knight' come from Romance languages, and literally just change the word to fit the gender of the subject (within a binary). So it isn't like English, where a female knight has always been a 'Dame', but, using Spain as an example, the word for Knight in Spanish is 'Cabellero'. This is the default masculine.

The feminine word for Knight? 'Cabellera'.

Similarly in French: "Chevalier" becomes "Chevaliére".

In Italian, "Cavaliere" becomes "Cavaliera".

Outside of Romance languages, "knight" is just a title for a social rank, so even the English Dame is by default a knight by rank, but may not have the title (although not impossible).

Just a note about translations and ... well, patriarchal bullshit.

When you say "Hatchet women fought the Moors" I was like "hey, that seems to be part of my local history, how have I never heard about it?", and when I googled it ... I actually have heard about it, it's the Orden del Hacha from Catalonia (Orde de l'Atxa in the original Catalan). But ... there's something odd going on. Why the fuck in English they have translated like "Order or the hatchet"? You know, in Spanish and Catalan there's no really a difference between "Axe" and "Hatchet": There's a single word for them, "Hacha/Atxa". But in English, there's a difference. A Hatchet is a hand axe, pretty much the smallest one you can think of:

So It's pretty remarkable that whoever translated the name of the order to english first decided to use "Hatchet" and not "Axe". I'm pretty sure if this was a order of men warriors the name would have been pretty different. Specially when THIS was their coat of arms:

Above: the larval form of Fulgoraecia exigua

Caterpillars of the family Epipyropidae, commonly known as planthopper parasite moths, are ectoparasites that feed on the haemolymph (i.e. "blood") of planthoppers and cicadas. This family contains at least 40 described species, all of which are parasites or parasitoids.

Above: planthopper parasite caterpillars tucked beneath the wings of their hosts

This is one of the few known examples of a caterpillar that actually engages in parasitic, carnivorous and/or predatory behavior.

Above: Fulgoraecia exigua

The caterpillar has hooked claws that allow it to cling to the host's body; it uses its mandibles to penetrate the cuticle around the abdomen, then inserts a proboscis-like structure into the planthopper's body and begins to feed on the fluids within.

Each caterpillar spends about 4-6 weeks feeding on its host, with its body often tucked beneath the larger insect's wings.

Above: a Fulgoraecia exigua caterpillar can be seen feeding beneath the wings of this planthopper

Young planthopper nymphs that are parasitized by these caterpillars rarely survive the process. The survival rate for older nymphs and adult hemipterans is also quite low.

Above: the photo at the top shows an Epipomponia nawai caterpillar feeding on a cicada, while the photo on the bottom shows Fulgoraecia exigua feeding on a leafhopper

Planthopper parasite caterpillars are often tiny, with their bodies measuring just 3-7mm long, and they're covered in waxy white filaments that make them look like little cottonballs. These features seem to mimic the "fluffy" appearance of many fulgoroid planthopper nymphs, which may enable the caterpillar to sneak up on its host.

Above: planthopper parasite caterpillars

When the caterpillar reaches maturity, it finally detaches from its host and then uses a thin strand of silk to abseil down to a leaf or a branch, where it can spin a cocoon around its body and enter pupation.

Above: the cocoons of Fulgoraecia exigua

The caterpillars of this family create very distinctive cocoons. As delicate layers of silk are folded together around the pupal case, they often form ridges, cone-like structures, or wider, flatter folds that look almost like rose petals.

Above: a cocoon made by an unidentified moth from family Epipyropidae

The fully-developed moth may emerge weeks or even months later, depending on the species. The adults of this family typically have a blackish-gray appearance.

Above: the adult form of Epipomponia nawai

Other examples of predatory, carnivorous and/or parasitic moths can be found in my earlier post about meat-eating caterpillars.

Sources & More Info:

Journal of the Lepidopterist's Society: Predatory and Parasitic Lepidoptera

The Lepidoptera: Form, Function, and Diversity: Epipyropidae

Moths of North Carolina: Fulgoraecia exigua

Bug Guide: Family Epipyropidae

Bombay Natural History Society: The Biology and Morphology of Epipyrops eurybrachydis

Egyptian Journal of Biological Pest Control: Parasitism by Fulgoraecia melanoleuca

Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology: Behavioural and Phylogeographic Observations on Epipomponia nawai

The first published study about climate change (that I am aware of-- feel free to point out if there's an older one) is an 1896 paper by Svante Arrhenius. He pointed out the link between the greenhouse effect and changes in atmospheric CO2.

Plate tectonics, which the geoscience community now recognizes as near indisputable, was a fringe theory until about the 1960s.

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

I might translate this article later today. This one was the most complete one, even in Italian news it's not talked about that much.