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
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76