It stands to reason. Any insect with five eyes should command our respect (take a close look at bees). And seeing the tiny gossamer wings of a butterfly is definitely awe-inspiring. As we learn more about insects and the roles they play in their lives, they share more of the spotlight.
As one of the judges of the recent UK Royal Entomological Society Insect Week photo competition said recently: ‘Each year this competition becomes more difficult to judge as the standard of amateur insect photography continues to improve… Interest in insects, in all their fascinating glory, is increasing,’ said Tim Cockerill.
This extraordinary photo below, from Gustav Parenmark, 16, from Sweden, won the under-18 category with a picture of a blue-tailed damselfly, entitled ‘Fresh out of the Shower’.
And the photo below from Sarah Perkins captures an orange-tip butterfly backlit by the afternoon sun.
A number of recently published books in Australia and internationally bring attention to pollinators’ pivotal role in nature. Here are some that may have flown under the radar:
'Australia’s Incredible Insects': This guide by Entomology PhD Candidate Jessa Thurman demystifies the way that insects live, from the fine detail of their internal processes to the way they co-exist with all other forms of life. Thurman says that insects can be both remarkable and terrible parents: ‘Insects have a variety of adaptations when it comes to maternal care. Stick insects often fling their eggs from the canopy to the leaf litter below, leaving their newly hatched nymphs to essentially fend for themselves.
‘Some stink bugs, on the other hand, will sit guard over their eggs for several days, starving themselves to protect their babies! From Australian Geographic Society. (Image courtesy Jessa Thurman.)
'In Wildness with Insects': This reflective photographic essay collection from China celebrates the ‘other worldly’ nature of insects, with the author, Banxia (pen name of Yang Hongyan), arguing that these micro species are integral to the macro world we live in. 'In Wildness with Insects' won a recent Top 10 Nature Book award from the Alibaba Non-Profit Fund.
Banxia reflects on the crisis of modernization, and says that gazing at insects’ worlds can make us appreciate the beauty, interactivity and complexity of nature. The book features photos of insects in farming, lake and wood lands.
One of PlantingSeeds’ contributors, Meng, has translated an excerpt from Chinese to English:
‘Sometimes I detect that a butterfly comes all the way to “meet” its kind. After an encounter, they dance in pairs with a bit of distance, circling up and down. I am constantly amazed by these little masters of communication, mediated only by biochemical liquids! How does a falling, stiff moth butterfly enchant ants with its scent of death? How do ants capture this message from five miles away, inform their mates and group so rapidly? Humans are so underdeveloped in their sensations! Perhaps our ancestors were agile in conversing with nature at the early stage of human history; for body functions, some has been evolved, while some degenerated… Is human wisdom truly uplifted by inventing AlphaGo that totally beats humanity in chess?'
'Pollination: How Does My Garden Grow' is a children’s picture book published by CSIRO Publishing and explains how pollinators are connected to the circle of life and the species’ important role in the production of food crops for humans.
The book places the reader in a child’s day spent with grandparents, exploring the pollinators in their backyard – the bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, reptiles, wasps and flies.