Studying Insects

The study of insects is called entomology. Entomology is a sub-section of biology and is one of the oldest sciences. Man has been learning the habits of insects, usually with a view to eradicating them, since the first plague of locusts landed on primitive farmers' crops tens of thousands of years ago. However, entomology was not really recognized and learned as a science until the Sixteenth Century.

Entomology has had numerous famous devotees but the most well-known was Charles Darwin. More recent entomologists are Karl von Frisch the Nobel Prize winner for medicine in 1973 and E. O. Wilson the two time Pulitzer prize winner.

Entomologists are also frequently credited with helping solve murders by studying the insects that are found on and in the dead body. This is quite possible and not just a device used in Hollywood films.

The first thing to understand is that not all creepy crawlies are insects. For instance, spiders are not insects, but many entomologists are not so strict and have an interest in arachnids (spiders), worms, slugs and snails.

All insects pass through several stages of life, but there are two types of insect development 'simple metamorphosis' and 'complete metamorphosis'.

The first sort includes most beetles and bugs like bed bugs. They are born as eggs and hatch into larvae (nymphs), which, whilst not 100% copies of their parents do look a bit like them

The second sort are also born as eggs, also hatch into larvae, but they look nothing like their parents - so dissimilar in fact that if you do not know what they are, you could not imagine. The larva then becomes a pupa when it appears to be dormant, this is not true though, there is plenty going on and when it emerges from the pupal stage it is unrecognizable. Butterflies are like this.

If you want to study insects, you have to focus because there are at least 1.3 million species of insects that we have found so far and there are lots more to name and classify.

You would be forgiven for imagining that these unknown insects, worms, slugs and beetles et cetera are all in remotest Africa or in thick jungles, but last year a carnivorous slug was found in a backyard in the middle of Cardiff in the UK.

In order to study insects, you normally have to catch them without killing them. This means nets and traps. it is easy enough to buy a butterfly net (or fishing net) and you can create your own pitfall traps for ground beetles. You will also require a decent book to help you identify your find and a magnifying glass to be able to better see it.

One word of advice though: you might think that there are too many insects and that no one actually cares about them, but this is not the case. There are numerous insects in every country that are protected and you will be breaking the law by taking them or killing them, so the first thing to do is find out which ones you may study and which ones it is better to leave alone.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is currently concerned with finding a home remedy for mosquito bites. If you
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