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The Creature Feature by David Rudin


Insecta 1 by Dianne Kornberg Consider the Beetle


Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the unsung beetle. We share the planet with over 400,000 species of beetles. (For perspective, there are only 50,000 animals with backbones: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals com-


bined.) In fact, according to Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell, beetles make up “almost 25% of all known life- forms.” How many kinds of beetles are there yet to be discovered? Scientific guess-timates range into the millions. Beetles have managed this remarkable feat with a winning design and a flair for adaptation. If there is a food source out there, there is a beetle adapted to exploit it. Entomologist Eric Grissell, author


of Insects and Gardens, informs us, “There are cigarette beetles, carpet beetles, ship-timber beetles, sap beetles, drugstore beetles,” (presumably loitering out front) “potato beetles, cucumber beetles and plant-boring beetles of all kinds.” Yes, beetles infest tobacco products and even pharmaceuticals. Fortunately they are rarely parasitic, and never on humans. We indulge in a love/hate relationship with them as with most of the insect world. We love ladybugs (ladybird beetles actually) munching on garden aphids, marvel at fireflies (another misnamed beetle, some- times called lightning bugs), and yet we rail against pine beetles devastating our forests, and against snout beetles,


48 Winter/Spring 2012 greenwomanmagazine.com


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