It’s almost summer, which, for many people, means insects, which, for many people, means bug spray and pest control-- but reading award-winning graphic artist Peter Kuper’s new book, Insectopolis: A Natural History, may change hearts and minds. The way we think of ourselves in relation to insects. Kuper teaches with delight. He introduced the graphic genre to Harvard, and he has here a bit hit.
His beautiful grey wash and ink drawings, full of wit and humor, are based on an entomology exhibit he helped mount at The New York Public Library in 2022 called INterSECTS, and those who know what the library looks like inside will be amazed at the accuracy of the drawings -- reading rooms, floors, halls instantly recognizable – with the insects under discussion flying around or crawling across the floor, making sardonic comments.
All manner of arthropods make their way onto the pages-- bees, cicadas, beetles, flies, moths, dragonflies, ants, spiders, centipedes, butterflies (hello Vladimir Nabokov), and sub-species beyond belief. Their sheer number and interaction with each other are evidence of the two epigraphs that open this oversized paperback volume: 1) if mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate to what it was 10,000 years ago; 2) if insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse.” This last by way of the late great E.O. Wilson, father of sociobiology.
Kuper’s certainly up-to-date, focusing on females. It’s the females that typically do the main work in the universe of insects, and, as Kuper makes sure we know, it’s women scientists, now finally credited with discoveries, that contributed key research to entomology and related disciplines. They include Rachel Carlson of course, whose passionate 1962 diatribe against DDT and other chemicals, Silent Spring, affected the way we look at nature.
Female scientists not only have been major players in studying how insects benefit the ecosystem, but some have also been front-line players in equality movements in science. Kuper highlights the work of Maria Sibylla Meriam (1647-1717), for example, the mother of entomology, he calls her, whose work on insect life cycles in Suriname was vital in understanding the relationship between flora and insects. And then there was Margaret Collins, the first Black entomologist, whose pioneering work on termites was equal to her dedication to civil rights in the 50s. What’s more, Kuper’s literary references, sly and informative, keep the record straight: Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” is not turned into a cockroach, as popular understanding would have it, but a beetle, with wings. Nabakov knows. He’s central in the book.
Insectopolis is a remarkable illustrated account about the way insects have affected and continue to affect our lives. and a fine example of the interaction of art and science. Still, even though Kuper says that only a few out of thousands of species of the hated mosquitoes bite or carry disease, I’m keeping a welcoming alcove outside my house for an insect-eating bat who comes visiting me every now and then.
