The Amazing World of Insect  Also Insects—Friends or Foes?

Taken from article in January 8, 2000 Awake! magazine

DO YOU think that insects are nothing more than a nuisance? Would you like the world to be free of these annoying pests? Do you spray them, swat them, or step on them at every opportunity? Before declaring war on every bug that crosses your path, why not try to learn something about their world? After all, with a population that outnumbers humans by about 200,000,000 to 1, you can be sure that insects are here to stay!

A brief look at just a few of these amazing creatures might well convince you that insects deserve your respect.

Masters of Flight, Marvels of Sight

Many insects are masters of flight. Consider some examples. Mosquitoes can fly upside down. Some can even fly through the rain without getting wet—yes, actually dodging the raindrops! Some tropical wasps and bees buzz around at speeds of up to 45 miles [72 km] per hour. One monarch butterfly of North America logged 1,870 miles [3,010 km] on its migration flight. Hover flies can beat their wings more than a thousand times per second—much faster than hummingbirds. Dragonflies can fly backward, a fact that has stimulated the curiosity—and close study—of researchers.

If you have ever tried to swat a fly, you know that these insects have exceptionally keen eyesight, which is coupled with a reflex that is ten times quicker than ours. Interestingly, the fly has a compound eye, containing thousands of six-sided lenses, each of which works independently. Likely, then, the fly’s view is broken up into tiny bits.

Some insects can perceive ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. Thus, what looks to us like a dull white butterfly is anything but dull to the male butterfly. Indeed, when seen in ultraviolet light, the female has attractive patterns that are ideal for grabbing the attention of courting males.

The eyes of many insects serve as a compass. Bees and wasps, for instance, can detect the plane of polarized light, enabling them to locate the sun’s position in the sky—even when it is hidden by clouds. Thanks to this ability, these insects can forage far from their nests and still find their way home unerringly.

Love Is in the Air

In the insect world, sounds and aromas are often used to find a mate—no small achievement if your life span is just a matter of weeks and prospective mates are few and far between.

Female emperor moths find a suitor by emitting a scent that is so potent that a male can home in on its source from nearly seven miles [11 km] away. His sensitive antennas can detect a single molecule of the scent.

Crickets, grasshoppers, and cicadas prefer to make themselves heard. Even we humans can hear the amorous cicada, as it converts its whole body into a sounding board. Why, a large group of courting cicadas can create a din that is louder than a pneumatic drill! In contrast, some females make no sound at all.

Waking Up and Warming Up

For humans who live in a cool climate, keeping warm is important. The same is true for cold-blooded insects that wake up each morning virtually frozen stiff. The sun is their ally, and they make the most of it.

Flies and beetles are attracted to flowers or leaves that bathe in the warmth of the sun during the early morning hours. Some beetles frequent Australian water lilies that act like botanical stoves, heating up their blossoms as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit [20°C.] higher than the surrounding temperature. In contrast, butterflies have a built-in heating system. When they need to warm up, they open their wings, which serve as efficient solar panels, and incline them toward the sun.

You Name It, Insects Do It!

In the insect world, nearly every species has a different role, some of which are quite bizarre. Some moths, for example, seek life-giving salt and moisture by sucking the tears of buffalo. Other insects, equipped with a potent antifreeze, inhabit freezing mountaintops and spend their lives scavenging bugs that have succumbed to the cold.

As wise King Solomon observed thousands of years ago, the ant is particularly industrious. Solomon wrote: "Go to the ant, you lazy one; see its ways and become wise. Although it has no commander, officer or ruler, it prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest." (Proverbs 6:6-8) The absence of a ruler is all the more remarkable considering that some colonies of ants may number upwards of 20 million! Yet, this insect "metropolis" functions perfectly, with each ant performing its specific task, so that the entire colony is supplied with food, protection, and housing.

Perhaps the most impressive example of insect housing is the termite mound. Some of them stand 25 feet [7.5 m] tall. For humans, the equivalent would be a skyscraper that stands six miles. These marvels of construction come with sophisticated air-conditioning and underground fungus gardens. Even more amazing, the termites that build these towering pyramids are blind!

Why We Need Insects

Insects play a vital role in our daily life. Indeed, about 30 percent of the foods we eat depend on pollination by bees, most of which are wild bees. But pollination is only one of the useful labors performed by insects. Insects keep the earth clean by means of an efficient recycling system, as they reprocess dead plants and animals. Thus, the soil is enriched, and nutrients that are liberated can make things grow. "Without insects," writes entomologist Christopher O’Toole in his book Alien Empire, "we would be inundated with dead plant and animal material."

Insects are sorely missed when their work is not done. Consider what happened in Australia, which has become home to millions of cattle. Herds inevitably scatter dung everywhere. Besides being unsightly, the manure provided a breeding site for the bush fly—a plague to both humans and cattle. So dung beetles were imported from Europe and Africa. The problem was solved!

Friends or Foes?

Admittedly, some insects eat crops and carry disease. But only about 1 percent of the world’s insects are considered pests, and many of these do more damage because of the way man himself has altered the environment. The malaria-carrying mosquito, for example, rarely bothers the native people who live in the equatorial forest. It does wreak havoc, though, on towns bordering the forest, where stagnant water abounds.

Often, man can naturally control insect pests that attack crops, either by rotating crops or by introducing or conserving natural predators. Lowly ladybugs and lacewings effectively control plagues of aphids. And in Southeast Asia, public-health workers discovered that a couple of dragonfly larvae could keep a water-storage container free of mosquito larvae.

Even with their drawbacks, then, insects are an integral part of the natural world on which we depend. As Christopher O’Toole points out, while insects can survive without us, "we cannot survive without them."

METAMORPHOSIS—A New Look, a New Life-Style

Some insects totally revamp their appearance through a process called metamorphosis—literally, "change in form." The changes can be quite dramatic. Maggots change into flies, caterpillars into butterflies, and aquatic larvae into airborne dragonflies. Hundreds of thousands of insects undergo metamorphosis.

To produce such a transformation—comparable to converting a train into an airplane—huge modifications must take place inside the insect’s body. Consider the butterfly, for example. While the caterpillar is dormant in the chrysalis, most of its previous tissues and body organs break down and a whole set of new adult organs—such as wings, eyes, and antennas—develop.

Often, the transformation involves taking on a new life-style. For example, while in the larval stage, the dragonfly captures small fish or tadpoles; but when it becomes a free-flying adult, it changes its diet to insects. This is the equivalent of a man spending his first 20 years swimming in the sea and the rest of his life flying around like a bird.

Could evolution orchestrate these incredible transformations? How could a caterpillar simply appear on the scene, programmed to transform itself into a butterfly? For that matter, which came first—the caterpillar or the butterfly? One cannot exist without the other, for only the butterfly breeds and lays eggs.

Surely, the process of metamorphosis gives convincing evidence of a Master Designer, the one whom the Bible identifies as the Creator of all things, Almighty God.—Psalm 104:24; Revelation 4:11.

Insects—Friends or Foes?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Peru

THE audience was paying rapt attention to the speaker, oblivious of the tropical heat and humidity that permeated the room. Suddenly an intruder with huge iridescent blue-green wings burst through a window! To the alarm of one woman, a North American unfamiliar with the local inhabitants, it headed her way!

Her first reaction was to throw her notebook at it. When this did not discourage its interest in her, she turned to her husband for help. The situation returned to normal when it was discovered that the intruder was a large but harmless grasshopper.

How would you have reacted? No doubt about it, insects can prompt a very dramatic reaction in some people. But is such a response always warranted? Or to put it another way: Are insects friends or foes? ‘Insects are such pests!’ you may say. ‘They bite. They sting. They ruin picnics. Who needs them?’

Yet, these little creatures play a vital role in the life systems here on earth. Perhaps getting better acquainted with the insect world would allay the fears of many.

Biggest Family on Earth

There are almost a million described species of insects already identified by man—more species than of all other animals combined. That means that if you learned the names of a hundred species every day, it would take you more than 27 years to learn the names of all the known species! But some sources indicate that there are yet millions of unidentified insect species.

Strictly speaking, not every little creature that crawls is an insect. How can you tell an insect? It’s very simple. Its body is divided into three parts (head, thorax and abdomen). It has one pair of antennae. Now, count its legs. If there are six, it’s an insect. If there are more or less than six, it’s not. For example, spiders, with four pairs of walking legs, strictly speaking are not insects but belong to the class known as arachnids.

How do insects contribute to the web of life here on earth? Well, man already appreciates the role of insects such as bees and butterflies in plant pollination. And ants? Why, in just one acre (0.4 ha) these tiny insects move tons of soil in a year, loosening and aerating it! Roaches and beetles feed on decaying matter; their own excreta nourish the soil. A number of insects serve as food for man, such as locusts, crickets, termites, ants and large beetles. From insects man obtains honey, beeswax, silk, shellac, dye and substances with medicinal value.

Strange as it may sound, insects even contribute to man’s pleasure. Perhaps you have enjoyed the chirp of a cricket, the murmur of busy bees on a warm summer afternoon, or the night dance of fireflies. Why, in the Amazon jungle area children can be observed playing with large beetles tied to a string!

True, some insects are terrible pests or disease-carriers. However, most really are not foes. Rather, they destroy weeds or just provide food for fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, and other insects. Let’s take a closer look at a few of them.

The Army Ants

Have you ever observed the irresistible march of aggressive ants? The march of hundreds of thousands of army ants, or driver ants, is one of the most awesome spectacles in the insect world. Any object in their path is overwhelmed by these militant columns; a tethered horse or a lethargic python can be reduced to mere bones in a few hours! Unlike other species of ants, the tropical army ant does not make a nest but marches, or advances, almost constantly, in swarms that are sometimes 16 yards (14.6 m) wide.

Scouting parties of soldiers with large heads and awesome scythelike jaws lead the way, scenting their path chemically. The main body of ants follows their scented trail. Traveling over 220 yards (200 m) in a day, moving only in daylight, this expedition is in action for about two weeks in its voracious and frantic search for food, especially to feed the ant larvae that are carried along. Then comes a pause in the advance as the queen lays 100,000 to 300,000 eggs; after about 20 days when these eggs become hungry larvae, the migration begins again. And to think that this fearsome army of soldiers and workers in all their frenzied activity are blind!

The army ant is the ‘new broom that sweeps clean,’ clearing the path of all grubs, larvae or any other creature caught unawares. Why, some natives are glad to have them pass through their rustic homes just to get a thorough housecleaning!

Large and Lovely

Not all insects are ugly. Some are quite beautiful—such as butterflies. Wouldn’t you agree? Breathtaking indeed is the sight of colorful and varied tropical butterflies, some as big as birds, who in their size and brilliance are visible hundreds of yards (meters) away. Especially admired are the morpho butterflies; their iridescent blue coloring has so fascinated men that these butterflies have been mounted in picture frames, providing a color background that defies the artist’s brush.

How big are cockroaches in your part of the world? Well, how do they compare in size to the South American Blaberus giganteus? With a length of about two inches (5 cm), it is one of the world’s largest! And what about moths in your part of the world? How would you feel if one with a wingspan of about one foot (30 cm) flew by you? That is the size of the owlet moth of South America. The world’s largest ant, Dinoponera gigantea, over one inch (2.5 cm) long, lives in the Brazilian jungle. Have you ever seen an ant that big?

Chigoe—A Tube Without Wings

There are about 1,400 different kinds of fleas in the world. Have you ever suffered the discomfort of making their acquaintance? No one likes a flea bite, but since most fleas do not live on their host, but just feed on him, the presence of a flea can be a good reminder to do a little more thorough housecleaning or to give your pet more careful attention.

Along the coast of Peru, and in other tropical areas of Central and South America, lives the most irksome member of the flea family—the chigoe. In Peru the chigoe, or chigger, is known as a pique. The impregnated females attach themselves to the feet of livestock, such as cattle or swine—or people—and penetrate the soft skin between the toes, under the toenails or any other spot where they can get a “toehold.”

The chigger buries herself under the skin with the tip of her abdomen remaining outside. Her breathing apparatus, anus and ovipositor (organ for depositing eggs) thus are outside her victim. Her abdomen then swells to the size of a small pea in a few days and will soon drop several thousand eggs on the ground. When the chigger finally dies she remains in the blister she has formed on her host; this can cause inflammation and, if neglected, a serious infection, tetanus or, worse yet, amputation of a toe! This, however, is a rare happening since the insect’s presence is soon felt and the distraught victim prefers to endure the pain of gouging out the entire blister, with its sliver-shaped culprit.

Of the almost one million species of insects already identified and named by man, how many do you know? Of the ones you know, can you explain their characteristics? The thought of thoroughly searching out this knowledge staggers the mind. But what a fascinating challenge!

So the next time you turn over a stone, slice a shovel through the soil or hear a hum in the breeze, don’t recoil at a potential foe—take a closer look at a possible friend. In doing so, you will no doubt find beauty, purpose, perhaps some amusement and enough wisdom to justify some study and contemplation.