Insectopedia Hardcover - 2010

Summary

Excerpt

Air

1.

On August 10, 1926, a Stinson Detroiter SM-1 six-seater monoplane took off from the rudimentary airstrip at Tallulah, Louisiana. The Detroiter was the first airplane built with an electric starter motor, wheel brakes, and a heated cabin, but it was not a good climber, so the pilot leveled off quickly, circled the airstrip and surrounding landscape, held open the specially fitted sticky trap beneath the plane's wing for the designated ten minutes, and soon returned to land. As he touched down, P. A. Glick and his colleagues at the Division of Cotton Insect Investigations of the U.S. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine ran out to meet him.

It was a historic flight: the first attempt to collect insects by airplane. Glick and his associates, as well as researchers at the Department of Agriculture and at regional organizations such as the New York State Museum, were trying to discover the migration secrets of gypsy moths, cotton bollworm moths, and other insects that were munching their way through the nation's natural resources. They wanted to predict infestations, to know what might happen next. How could they contain these insect enemies if they didn't know where, when, and how they traveled?

2.

Before Tallulah, high-altitude entomology had barely got off the ground. Researchers sent up balloons and kites fitted with hanging nets, climbed up pylons, and pestered lighthouse keepers and mountaineers. But armed now with the new airplane technology, Glick went down to Tlahualilo in Durango, Mexico. There, 3,000 feet above the valley plain, his pilots trapped the pink bollworm moth, a feared invader of the U.S. cotton crop. Face-to-face with the unanticipated scale of his task, Glick wrote tersely that "the pink bollworm moths are carried in the upper air currents for considerable distances."

There were only a few flies and wasps in that first trap at Tallulah. But over the next five years, the researchers flew more than 1,300 sorties from the Louisiana airstrip and captured tens of thousands more insects at altitudes ranging from 20 to 15,000 feet. They generated a long series of charts and tables, cataloguing individual insects of 700 named species according to the height at which they were collected, time of day, wind speed and direction, temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, dew point, and many other physical variables. They already knew something about long-distance dispersal. They had heard about the butterflies, gnats, water striders, leaf bugs, booklice, and katydids sighted hundreds of miles out on the open ocean; about the aphids that Captain William Parry had encountered on ice floes during his polar expedition of 1828; and about those other aphids that, in 1925, made the 800-mile journey across the frigid, windswept Barents Sea between the Kola Peninsula, in Russia, and Spitsbergen, off Norway, in just twenty-four hours. Still, they were taken aback by the enormous quantities of animals they were discovering in the air above Louisiana and unashamedly astonished by the heights at which they found them. All of a sudden, it seemed, the heavens had opened.

Unmoored, they turned to the ocean, began talking about the "aeroplankton" drifting in the vastness of the open skies. They told each other about tiny insects, some of them wingless, all with large surface-area-to-weight ratios, plucked from their earthly tethers by a sharp gust of wind, picked up on air currents and thrust high into the convection streams without volition or capacity for resistance, some terrible accident, carried great distances across oceans and continents, then dropped with the same fateful arbitrariness in a downdraft on some distant mountaintop or valley plain. They estimated that at any given time on any given day throughout the year, the air column rising from 50 to 14,000 feet above one square mile of Louisiana countryside contained an average of 25 million insects and perhaps as many as 36 million. They found ladybugs at 6,000 feet during the daytime, striped cucumber beetles at 3,000 feet during the night. They collected three scorpion flies at 5,000 feet, thirty-one fruit flies between 200 and 3,000, a fungus gnat at 7,000 and another at 10,000. They trapped an anthrax- transmitting horsefly at 200 feet and another at 1,000. They caught wingless worker ants as high as 4,000 feet and sixteen species of parasitic ichneumon wasps at altitudes up to 5,000 feet. At 15,000 feet, "probably the highest elevation at which any specimen has ever been taken above the surface of the earth," they trapped a ballooning spider, a feat that reminded Glick of spiders thought to have circumnavigated the globe on the trade winds and led him to write that "the young of most spiders are more or less addicted to this mode of transportation," an image of excited little animals packing their luggage that opened a small rupture in the consensus around the passivity of all this airborne movement and led to Glick's subsequent observation that ballooning spiders not only climb up to an exposed site (a twig or a flower, for instance), stand on tiptoe, raise their abdomen, test the atmosphere, throw out silk filaments, and launch themselves into the blue, all free legs spread-eagled, but that they also use their bodies and their silk to control their descent and the location of their landing. Thirty-six million little animals flying unseen above one square mile of countryside? The heavens opened. The air column was "a vault of insect-laden air" from which fell " a continuous rain."

3.

From the mid-1920s through the 1930s, high-altitude researchers in France, England, and the United States were making the same discoveries and coming to the same conclusions. Broadly speaking, they decided, there were two kinds of insect travel. The tiny insects of the aerial plankton occupied the air above 3,000 feet, where they moved involuntarily, unable to resist the fast-moving higher-level currents. Stronger-flying, larger insects kept relatively close to the ground, below the 3,000-feet boundary, harnessing the calmer, low-altitude winds and migrating according to their own routes and schedules. These lower- level migrations could be spectacular. Some, such as those of the monarch butterflies and the Old Testament locusts, were already familiar. Others could take an entomologist by surprise. All were somehow mysterious. In 1900, James William Tutt witnessed millions of noctuid Silver Y moths flying with other insects in a steady east-west line alongside migrating birds. A few years later, William Beebe from the New York Zoological Society-the same William Beebe who pioneered deep-sea exploration in his steel bathysphere-found himself caught in a dense mass of purplish-brown butterflies on the Portachuelo Pass in northern Venezuela. Despite his confusion, Beebe managed to calculate that at least 186,000 insects had swept by him in the first ninety minutes. An hour later, with the torrent now "going full strength," he composed himself enough to pull out his high-power binoculars:

I began about twenty-five feet overhead and then refocussed slowly upward until the limit of vision of the small insects was reached. This, judged by horizontal tests of objects of similar size would be about a half mile zenithwards, and at every fractional turn of the screw, more and more smaller-appearing butterflies fluttered into clarity.

Throughout the entire extent of verticality there was no lessening of denseness of flying insects. . . . For many days this particular phase of migration continued, millions upon millions coming from some unknown source, travelling due south to an equally mysterious destination.

Beebe also reported a different phenomenon: a steady stream of insects of many species-cockchafers, chrysomelid beetles, vespid wasps, bees, moths, butterflies, and "hosts upon hosts of minute winged insect life"-passing together through the migration flyway in a massive motley emigration that apparently took place every year. All that minute insect life was too small to be counted. But aphids, an indistinct haze, will swarm at densities up to 250 times greater than that of butterflies. In fact, these tiny ones-the aphids, the thrips, the microlepidoptera, the smallest beetles, the smallest parasitic wasps, all barely visible to the human eye-form the overwhelming majority of species and individuals of the class Insecta, testimony to the fact that evolution shrank

the insects over the millennia even as it exploded their numbers and differences.

The giant dragonflies of the late Paleozoic, with their thirty-inch wingspans, are no more. As insects miniaturized, they developed their near-endless variety of aerodynamic body shapes and their specialized muscles for super-high-frequency wingbeats. Of the million or so spe? cies currently described, the average adult body length is at most a mere two tenths of an inch, and the median length is significantly less. None?theless, it is the larger, more visible insects, those four tenths of an inch or more in length (that is, at least twenty times larger than the average), that command the attention of researchers. If we subtract the huge volume of genomic studies of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the literature on tiny insects is scant. It seems clear that the relative abundance of miniature insects that Glick recorded in the air column is less a result of their being so easily carried aloft than a result of the fact that they so outnumber their larger relatives.

Glick himself reported strong-flying dragonflies at 7,000 feet over Tallulah, large insects flying well above the 3,000-foot boundary and flying so comfortably that they shifted direction to avoid his plane. Other researchers, including Beebe, recorded minute weak-flying insects-the supposedly involuntary dispersers-close to the ground, well below the proposed threshold. Researchers of insect flight now talk about the boundary layer in more fluid terms, as a variable region near the earth's surface in which wind speed is less than the speed at which a particular insect is capable of flying, a zone that varies with the strength of the wind and the capacity of the insect. Within the boundary layer, the insect is able to orient itself actively. Above the boundary layer, its direction of flight is strongly influenced by the prevailing winds, and the animal adapts to, rather than overcomes, atmospheric conditions. Given that only about 40 percent of known insects fly at airspeeds greater than three feet per second and that such timid winds-so gentle that a human can barely sense them-are generally found only close to the ground, most insects exercise full control over their directionality only at an altitude of three to six feet.

Yet beyond the boundary layer, thousands of feet into the troposphere, it's likely that only a small proportion of these animals-those without wings (such as spiders and mites), those that become too cold, and those suffering from exhaustion-are passively carried. From the tiniest to the largest, migrating insects are out there actively flying, flapping their wings, maintaining or varying their altitude and direction despite the strength of the winds around them. Sometimes they hover, sometimes they glide, sometimes they free-fall, sometimes they soar. They do what they can to evade birds in the daytime and bats at night. Rarely do they drift along like pollen in a breeze. Or plankton in the ocean.

No, aerial plankton is not a good name for these animals. They don't live in this medium; they occupy it temporarily. And their residency is full of calculation and action. Their exodus is triggered by the impulse to find new habitats and to encounter new hosts. Sometimes their flights are short, repeated dispersals; sometimes they are vast migrations from which the traveler may or may not return. In either case, there is little passivity. Takeoff is oriented to wind and light. If the animal is strong enough, flight is often against or across the wind. Butterflies and locusts streaming in formation may suddenly interrupt a low-level journey with a dramatic collective rise to catch a current at thousands of feet. Even tiny insects appear to seek out thermal drafts. In the upper reaches of the air column, the minute ones take paths strongly determined by the wind, but inside the airstream they hold steady, beating their wings, adjusting their direction and altitude. And then they alight, often prompted by scent or reflecting light, using their bodies to bring themselves to earth.

Forty years ago, Cecil Johnson, the author of a classic text on insect migration and dispersal, pointed out that many, perhaps most, individual insects die on these voyages, but "this is the price such species pay for finding their habitats." Johnson conjured an image of a planet under surveillance, "the surface of the Earth is thus scanned very effectively as millions of individuals, flying on air currents, continuously encounter suitable and unsuitable situations." When the situation does not suit, they soon take off again in search of a better location for feeding or breeding (or some other activity obscure to us), following "a direction determined either by the wind or themselves." It is a fact of planetary life, a great "diffusion system" that transports immense populations of animals "day after day, year after year, century after century."12 What happens to the notion of an invasive species in the face of this continuous and irrepressible traffic of short- and long-range travel, dispersal, and migration? What is left of a notion that everything has its own place, that everything belongs somewhere and nowhere else, that boundaries are inviolable, that with vigilance and chemicals this hyperabundance of willful and random life can be brought under control? Perhaps this was what Glick glimpsed 3,000 feet above Durango, face-to-face with the pink bollworm moth, its flapping wings gleaming in the high- altitude sunshine.

4.

Stop. If you're inside, go to a window. Throw it open and turn your face to the sky. All that empty space, the deep vastness of the air, the heavens wide above you. The sky is full of insects, and all of them are going somewhere. Every day, above and around us, the collective voyage of billions of beings.

That's the letter A: the first thing not to forget. There are other worlds around us. Too often, we pass through them unknowing, seeing but blind, hearing but deaf, touching but not feeling, contained by the limits of our senses, the banality of our imaginations, our Ptolemaic certitudes.

Media reviews

"Beautifully lyrical." –The Boston Globe

"Unique beyond imagination. Bizarre. Endlessly interesting, a book that cannot be categorized. This book insists you learn its unexpected facts because you cannot put it down…You will never forget having read this book. You will never forget where you put it either, since you have dog-eared it for displays of another astounding fact when your friends come to visit." –Decatur Daily

"As Raffles shows our nearby neighbors to be at once dangerous and beautiful, common and incomprehensible, he refracts a world that is newly fascinating." –Audubonmagazine.com

"Compulsively readable, equal parts anthropology, travel, philosophy, history and science…Insectopedia will stir your imagination." –valeaston.com, "Plant Talk"

"As inventive and wide ranging and full of astonishing surprises as the vast insect world itself. Raffles takes us on a delirious journey, zooming in and out from the microscopic to the global, from the titillating to the profound, from Niger to China, from one square mile above Louisiana to the recesses of his own mind."
—The New York Times, Science Times

"Sure to amuse, educate, raise our hackles, unveil our guilt, and leave us to ponder just who we think we are anyway. For inquisitive adults seeking a mind trip outside the box."
—Library Journal, starred review
 
“Raffles' eclectic examination of our diverse reactions to bugs, ranging from scholarly and aesthetic awe to revulsion or phobia, is an enthralling hodgepodge of historical fact, anthropological observation, and scientific insight.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
 
"In any competition for the strangest delights of this publishing year, nothing is likely to beat this A to Z investigation of bug-world . . . . It’s a revelation of the world of our fellow creatures . . . by a writer whose style is equal to his huge and strange task."
—Buffalo News

"Sings with scholarship, deft writing, and an authentic fascination with the six-legged creatures that have so long roamed the Earth."
—Seed Magazine

"Hugh Raffles's work stands alone for what it says both about its subject and about us. After reading Insectopedia, it's hard to look at a cricket,  a bumblebee, and a human being the same way ever again. I adored the book.
—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish

"Art, science, beetles, beauty, miracles, manias, and more—the world itself, dazzling, gleams freshly through Raffles' insect-eyed lens.  Every page delighted me."
—Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever (National Book Award winner) and The Voyage of the Narwhal

"Arbitrariness is part of this book’s extremely peculiar charm. Insectopedia qualifies as food for thought…this is a collection of imaginative forays into what, for most readers, will be terra incognita." —The New York Times, daily review

"As inventive and wide ranging and full of astonishing surprises as the vast insect world itself." –The Mercury News

"Provocative…Insectopedia opens up a can of worms and it’s doubtful they can be herded back in." –Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Unusual and most engaging." –The Seattle Times

"Vivid and fascinating…this book will challenge your view of insects and make you see these wonderful creatures from a new perspective." –New Scientist

"An outrageously well-written piece of nonfiction that reads like literary fiction…the prose is strikingly beautiful and riotously varied. Raffles can whip up a historical piece of science reporting with elegant diction and admirable pacing." –Bookotron.com

"A poetic, thoughtful, discursive and peculiar contribution…a revelation of the world of our fellow creatures." –BuffaloNews.com

"Lucid and often beautifully constructed prose…we can’t recommend it highly enough." –Austin Chronicle

"Gorgeous, fascinating, and though-provoking...a stunning, sensitively written, insightful book." –Bookslut.com

"Should a book be desired that will bring to the reader aspects of both insect and human life not previously imagined, encourage the re-evaluation of previously held beliefs about the teeming small multitudes that exist all around us every day, and throw open the doors of perception and allow a storm of new ideas to come blowing in, bringing with them the seeds of innumerable further questions, then without a doubt, Insectopedia is exactly the book to be read." –The Well-Read Naturalist

"To say that this book is original is an understatement. This book of reference is essential, informative, eclectic, and—best of all—fun." –Tusconcitizen.com, "Shelf Life"

“Insectopedia combines elements of science, history, travel and popular culture to form a sparkling whole, a wide-ranging and idiosyncratic survey of a world we all too often scorn or swat…the author reminds us of the connections among all creatures, of the unfathomable mysteries that separate us, and of the fragility and resilience of life.” –The Providence Journal

”It’ll make you think, make you question some of your preconceived notions, and cause you to wonder about the vital importance of even the smallest of life to our own.” –bscreview.com
 
“Light and lyrical…each essay is a treat and a surprise, each one a new and fresh approach.” –NY Journal of Books
 
“Brilliant…Raffles is the kind of omnivorous scholar we sadly see so little of today in publishing.” –edgylit.blogspot.com
“Raffles writes with assurance, whimsy, erudition and humor. His tone is engaging, offering insight into the meandering turns of his own curiosity…A book to read straight through, or dip into over time. And reread too. Maybe even aloud.” –SeacoastOnline.com

“Learn something while you’re being entertained. Then get up, prowl for insects, and rediscover the wonder you found in them as a child.” –Fresh Dirt, sunset.com

“Erudite, stunningly researched, and thoughtful.” –Bookwyrme’s Lair

“A fascinating look at the interrelationship between insects and humans, Insectopedia is a book you will want to read and read again.” –Cheap Sunglasses Blog
 
“Insectopedia is a unique and absorbing book.” –Magill Book Reviews

“Beautifully written and slyly humorous.” –New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2010

“Reading Insectopedia is like embarking on a journey through uncharted terrain or even to an alien planet...The essays are surprising, enlightening, poetic and occasionally disturbing.” –MNN.com