The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, who was an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona.

Schmidt's original 1983 paper was a way to systematize and compare the hemolytic properties of insect venoms. A table in the paper included a column that rated sting pain, starting from 0 for stings that are completely ineffective against humans, progressing through 2 for familiar pains such as those caused by common bee or wasp stings, and finishing at 4 for the most painful stings. Only the bullet ant, Paraponera clavata, was given a rating of 4, although later versions of the index added two more species.

Schmidt repeatedly refined his scale, including a paper published in 1990, which classifies the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera, and culminating in a book published in 2016.

Motivation

The Schmidt sting pain index arose from the pursuit of a larger hypothesis: that the evolution of sociality in Hymenoptera was dependent on the evolution of venom that was both painful and toxic. If there were no defenses, predators would devour the defenseless society, leaving few surviving individuals.

Development

Scale

Schmidt's pain scale of Hymenopteran stings is organized into levels, ranging between 1 and 4, with 4 being the most painful. However, insect stings that feel very different can be put into the same level. Thus, later versions of the scale always include a brief description of his experience being stung by each type of insect.

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!Level 1

|Some of the insect stings Schmidt considered to be at a pain level of 1 include the Southern fire ant, the graceful twig ant, the Western paper wasp, the urban digger bee, and most small bees. The duration of the pain of insect stings categorized into Pain Level 1 generally is five minutes or less.

Feeling only slight pain, Schmidt described the sting of an urban digger bee, categorized into pain level 1, as "almost pleasant, a lover just bit your earlobe a little too hard."

He later gave the sting of a tarantula hawk species, Pepsis grossa, a rating of a 4, He also later rated the sting of Synoeca septentrionalis as a 4, describing it as "Torture. You are chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list?",

In September 2015, Schmidt and Michael L. Smith were co-awarded the Ig Nobel Physiology and Entomology prize for their Hymenoptera research.

The Starr sting pain scale is based on the Schmidt index.

See also

  • Dol scale to measure pain
  • Kings of Pain, a TV series with another pain index

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Berenbaum, May. "A Stinging Commentary", in American Entomologist, (Summer 2003).
  • Conniff, Richard. "The King of Sting", in Outside, v. 21 n. 4 (April 1996), pp. 82–84, 147.
  • Conniff, Richard. "Stung: How tiny little insects get us to do exactly as they wish", Discover, June 2003.
  • The Chemical Compositions of Insect Venoms - Includes the graphic below
  • A Partial Schmidt Insect Sting Pain Index