“We’ve been here for 100 million years and we’ll be here long after you!”
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Insect Agricultural Products: Silk
• Silk is produced by the caterpillar of the silkmoth, Bombyx mori, to form its coccon. Silk production began in China in3000 B.C.
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Insect Disease Vectors: Malaria
• Caused by different species of Plasmodium microorganisms and vectored by mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles. Causes high, recurring fever and sometimes death. Malaria kills an estimated 1 to 3 million deaths per year (mostly African children under 5) and causes 300-500 million cases of serious illness. Considered a major impediment to economic development in Africa. Control involves mosquito abatement and drug treatment.
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Insects and Culture
• Insects in Religion & Myth
– Ancient Egypt: Dung beetle (Scarab) rolled the sun across the sky and carried the souls of the dead. – Maori - souls of the dead return as butterflies – Native American groups butterflies symbolize rebirth Hopi -Butterfly Kachina
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Literature:
– Kafka’s Metamorphosis – Don Marquis’s Archy and Mehitabel
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Theatre and Movies
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Insects in the Movies
• Insect Horror Movies:
Them! The Fly Mothra The Swarm Tarantula The Black Scorpion The Incredible Shrinking Man The Exorcist II: The Heretic The Hellstrom Chronicle Arachnophobia
Insects and the Arts
• Insects have served as inspiration for all human art forms: Visual arts
– Andrew Wyeth’s Winter Bees
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Music:
– Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee
Insects are high in Protein! Insects = 64% protein Fish = 32% Berries = 3%
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Insects and Human Health
• • Blood-feeding insects serve as vectors for many human diseases. Some of these diseases have profoundly affected human history: Examples:
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Insects and Food: Pollinators
• • Most fruit and vegetable crops require insect pollination. Main pollination - honeybee (Apis mellifera) introduced from Europe. Annual value of honeybee pollination in United States: $1.8-18 billion. Alternate managed pollinators: bumblebees (greenhouse crops) alfalfa leafcutter bee in alfalfa.
Insects & Humans:
Where ever we go, there they are.
The intertwined lives of insects and people
• Insects and agriculture • Insects and human health • Insects and human culture
• • • Bubonic plague- The Black Death Human mortality rate of 30-75% Caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, vectored by the Oriental rat flea and reservoired in rats. Long present in Asia, the Crusades brought the disease to Europe in 1347. By 1352, 25 million people (1/3 the total population) were dead. Recurrent plague outbreaks continue to the present.
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Global Risk of Malaria in 2003 (WHO)
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Insects for Medical Treatment
• Insects are important models for medical research, particularly in genetics and neurobiology. Example: Drosophila melanogaster Blowfly maggots - used to remove decaying flesh.
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Ring a round the rosy A pocketful of posies Atishoo! Atishoo! We all fall down.
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Insect Disease Vectors: Yellow Fever
• Yellow fever is a viral disease vectored by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Symptoms - acute onset of high fever, aches, vomiting, jaundice. Death may occur within 3 days. Limited treatment options, but a vaccine is effective prevention. Still common in Africa and parts of Latin America. Played a major role in military campaigns and efforts to build the Panama Canal in 1905.
Insects and Agriculture: Competitors
• Pests (insects, weeds, fungi and vertebrates) cause the loss of about 1/3 of all agricultural products. Direct insect pests: feed on the harvested portion of crop. Indirect insect pests feed on other plant parts, reducing plant vigor and/or spreading disease. Stored product insect pests feed on harvested food products.
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Movies with Insect Heroes:
Spiderman I & II Antz Bug’s Life Angels & Insects Joe’s Apartment
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Movies with insects in supporting roles:
Mysterious Island Silence of the Lambs Days of Heaven Men in Black
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Insects AS Food
• Many non-Western cultures regularly consume insects.
– – – – Ant eggs, pupae and adults Bees larvae and pupae Wasps - popular in Asia Lepidoptera larvae- the famous wichetty grub! – Grasshoppers- eaten by a – Termites
– Bubonic plague – Yellow fever