Multitude of Insects

Butterfly Room at AMNH

Insects are everywhere. Over 900,000 currently known species live with and around us, and most of the time we barely even notice them. Tiny mites cover our skin, house pests inhabit our homes, and millions of insects make the great outdoors their home. Yet, most of us still don't even acknowledge these bugs. It's like they are part of a whole alternate universe.

I'm not a huge fan of insects, but they don't petrify me either. I simply just don't think about them much. After meeting Louis Sorkin in my Tree of Life class at the American Museum of Natural History, and reading How Not to Be Eaten: The Insects Fight Back by Gilbert Waldbauer, I became more interested in creepy-crawlies. Here's some cool stuff I recently learned about them.

• Insects are the most widely available source of animal food on the planet and most animals, other insects, and even some humans will readily eat them. Insects have developed countless ways to evade predators and predators have developed countless ways to catch and eat bug
• Flying insects are another great food source for birds and bats. Swallows and swifts fly at different heights in the air divided by species to avoid competing for food. Kingfishers aren't into cooperation, they viciously fight off any possible competition in their territory.
• Have you ever wondered how cockroaches manage to scurry away so quickly? Well, cockroaches and other insects like them have light and touch sensors on their tail end so they are aware of approaching predators or angry humans at all angles. They know we're there before we know they're there.
• Burrowing owls place dung around the entrances to their burrows to attract their favorite snack, dung beetles. Some researchers once removed the dung, and the owls became agitated and began to bob up and down in distress.

Not only are insects fascinating, the people who study them get to do some interesting stuff at their jobs like help the police investigate homicides. Louis Sorkin told my class that entomologists can look at the insects found in a corpse and tell how long the body has been expired, based on how developed the insects are, and whether or not the body was moved, based on what type of insects are in the corpse and what area they are native to. Aren't bugs amazing?

Butterfly Room at AMNH

As I continue to read How Not to Be Eaten: The Insects Fight Back I'm excited to learn more about insects. I have to say bugs are a little less creepy when you learn about them, but I'll still jump and shudder every time I find a cockroach in the kitchen.