UW-La Crosse entomologist's 'epiphany' reveals our bonds with bugs

Barrett Klein: [grunts] Take one.

Producer: And then try talking about it.

Barrett Klein: Orthoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Trichoptera. Notice they all end in “optera,” Greek for “wing.” Coleoptera, beetles. From a weevil to a ground beetle. Here, we’ve got burying beetles and other carrion beetles. Goliath beetle, the most massive insect on the planet. Insects.

Barrett Klein: The grand diversity, variety, not only in shape, color, form, but behavior has always inspired and excited me. I’m Barrett Klein, entomologist, entomoartist, animal behaviorist, and professor of biology at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

[quirky music]

Barrett Klein: I like to share my food with the roaches. Let’s see. Now, they love bananas. Chowing down!

Barrett Klein: So it’s tempting to swat, slap, and dismiss or repel insects.

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Barrett Klein: It takes a little bit more effort to observe, not just tolerate, but celebrate insect involvement in our lives. Pollination, decomposition, nutrient dispersal, soil aeration. Our lives depend on them.

Barrett Klein: Let’s find that winner of a drawer. Hey, what are they doing here? Excuse me. When I was five years old, I found a dead butterfly on my parents’ driveway, and I was thrilled because to a child, to well, to anybody with open eyes and an open mind, the beauty was exhilarating. I could hold that accessible, exquisite organism, and I felt really privileged.

Barrett Klein: And I knew at that point, I had this nebulous epiphany that insects would be at the core of my existence. So, when I was asked to write a book, I titled it “The Insect Epiphany” because every day, there’s a new epiphany as to how insects influence our lives.

Barrett Klein: Cultural entomology, or how insects have affected human culture across the world and throughout history.

[groovy music]

Barrett Klein: On this table, you see insects in comic books, and then stamps from across the world. Products like cochineal. The dried bodies can form this lustrous red. Entomophagy, the eating of insects. High in calories, as well as micronutrients and protein. Pupae, crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms, larvae. From Korea, we’ve got silkworm moth pupae. Not my highest recommendation. Insects as costumes.

Barrett Klein: Here’s my sketchbook designing that number. So when Halloween comes up, I must have an insect helmet. A bald-faced hornet nest with entrance as the mouth, and a gaping hole revealing a brood cone. Paper wasp helmet, silk tunic and wings, cochineal sleeves, paper chest shield.

Producer: Why, why, why do you do it?

Barrett Klein: [laughs] My reason for involving insects, it affords me a greater intimacy with the arthropods I love. But also, I find art is an easy, fun, often inspiring way to communicate to fellow humans the value of insects. To explore this intimate connection we have with insects, that’s what’s really exciting to me. [laughs]