“I'm obsessed with insects, particularly insect flight. I think the evolution of insect flight is perhaps one of the most important events in the history of life. Without insects, there'd be no flowering plants. Without flowering plants, there would be no clever, fruit-eating primates giving TED Talks.” – Michael Dickinson, UC Berkeley professor and MacArthur Genius Fellow
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – All that you have to do is peer into a clump of grass, a pond, beneath the sand or under a log to become a watchman of our diminutive neighbors, the insects.
It would take a lifetime to become well-acquainted with the habits of any one of them.
Some, like UC Berkeley Professor Michael Dickinson or naturalist Edwin Way Teale have, indeed, devoted much of their lives to bug study.
Teale created his own insect garden to study the little critters, and found that for almost every invention we humans lay claim to, an insect has already “invented” it.
For example, a needle used by a nurse or seamstress is nothing compared to the proboscis of the mosquito.
Other comparisons are found in the protective armor of a beetle, the use of paper can be found in the construction of a paper wasp's home which he builds using plant fibers and his saliva, the ball and socket was once innovative to humans, but was located in the head of an ant or bee to connect its antenna for eons.
The original potters were the mud daubers, insects who construct their homes of mud.
Although, technically, spiders belong to the arachnid family, and are not insects, they, along with insects comprise the biggest animal group on our planet.
Once, I was giving a lesson on weather in my fourth grade class. I gave each student a cricket in a paper bag and we told the air temperature by counting the chirps before we let them go. These little creatures were found to be nature's thermometers by Amos Dolbear around 1897.
The colorful boxelder bugs, just over half an inch long, with dark orange or red wing markings, appeared as if out of nowhere in large numbers recently, mating and sunning themselves before flying off.
Apparently they dine on shrubs and also lay their eggs there, with boxelder trees being their favorite sites for this pursuit.
Caterpillars are especially interesting insects to observe, with their furry thorax and abdomens propelled about by six legs, with short “prolegs” protruding from their small bodies.
Watching the lives of miniature beings is strange and fascinating all at once. Their mysterious lives play out for all to see each and every day.
For more information visit the Entomological Society of America, http://www.entsoc.org/home .
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.