Aratus’ Phaenomena calls upon its reader to scrutinize the letters of the text as carefully as the stars and constellations that form its subject matter. The poem abounds with clever letter-play and wordplay, and its reception too is characterized by verbal cleverness, as later authors vie with Aratus and one another to create ingenious textual effects. Among the best-known examples is the word ἄρρητον (‘unspoken’) at Phaen. 2, a witty hidden sphragis for Aratus, who nowhere in his work directly names himself. Later poets picked up on this pun: Callimachus speaks of the λεπταὶ ῥήσιες Ἀρήτου (Anth. Pal. 9.507.3-4 = 27 Pf.), repeating the verbal root of ἄρρητον in ῥήσιες and its sound in Ἀρήτου. Leonidas of Tarentum meanwhile rates Aratus ‘second after Zeus’ (Διὸς … δεύτερος, Anth. Pal. 9.25.5-6), acknowledging the hidden sphragis, which follows directly after the invocation of Zeus in line 1 of the Phaenomena.

Indirect effects of insect control strategies on weed populations areimportant to consider when developing robust integrated pest managementstrategies. Weed seed predation rates were investigated in corn managedunder three contrasting treatments based on control practices for cornrootworm: (1) the transgenic crop Cry3Bb Bt corn, (2) the broad-spectruminsecticide tefluthrin, and (3) no insecticide control. This 2-yr fieldstudy conducted near Ithaca, NY, involved quantifying seed loss fromvelvetleaf, common lambsquarters, and giant foxtail in arenas with andwithout vertebrate exclosures. Velvetleaf and giant foxtail were unaffectedby the insecticide treatment; however, average seed predation of commonlambsquarters was lower in both the Bt corn (11.9%) and insecticide-treatedplots (11.8%) compared with control plots (17.5%) that did not receive anyinsecticide. Seed predation of common lambsquarters was not affected by thevertebrate exclosure. Lower seed predation in the transgenic Bt corn andinsecticide treatments was likely due to nontarget effects on carabids(Coleoptera: Carabidae). Although the reduction in seed predation was modestand limited to only one of the three weed species tested, our resultshighlight the need for greater risk assessment that includes the ecosystemservice of weed seed predation when considering insect pest managementoptions.