NATS 1636 Fall 2024 Insects: Identification,

Importance and Impacts

Fall 2024

Week 12
Insects and Human Culture
 Course evaluation
• Kindly complete the course evaluation at the eClass link
• If 70% or more of the class completes this by December 4 I will
give everyone a bonus mark on the final exam
 Want more?
• If you like my teaching style
– NATS 1565 3.0 Plant Life Human Life S1 2025, online
– NATS 1535 3.0 Global Cultures of Science and Technology F2025, online
– STS 3750 3.0 Genomics and Society Winter 2025 and Fall 2025
• If you love nature
– NATS 1665 3.0 Plants in the City – our first field course! (hands-on work)
• If you are interested in more general science content
– consider another NATS course as an elective- ask me if you need help choosing -
https://www.yorku.ca/science/natsci/courses/
• If you are interested in science, technology and their role in society
– Consider the STS major or minor, or taking STS courses to enhance your degree
– https://www.yorku.ca/science/sts/
Term Project – Academic Honesty and Integrity
• All work should be your own
• Do not copy-paste directly from sources (this is plagiarism).
• AI should not be used to write your slide notes or design your slides
as this constitutes academic dishonesty since it is not your original
work. If you used AI for information gathering be extremely
careful, as information and references are sometimes incorrect.
• Wikipedia is not a proper source, although it can contain good
information. Get your information directly from the sources used
by Wikipedia in the references section. You may use images from
Wikimedia – be sure to credit the source
 Term Project – References
• All images should have an Author, Date reference underneath
• All text in the notes should use in-text referencing format (APA
– Author, date). Wherever you use information taken from
somewhere, you should provide a source
• At least 3 sources expected, 5-7 is typical, more is ok. 1 or 2
sources may not give you diverse enough perspectives, and
may reflect minimal research effort
 Term Project – submission
• Please submit in PDF format only – if you used powerpoint,
print your slides using a PDF printer
• Notes for each slide should appear underneath the slide, or on
the following page
• Submission deadline extended to Dec. 10 – please email a
request for this extension to nats1636@yorku.ca
• Similarity report available about 1 day after submission – you
may resubmit until the deadline.
 Cultural Entomology
• “the study of the influence of insects in literature, languages,
music, arts, interpretive history, religion and recreation”
(Cherry 2008 in Rai et al, 2023)
• Recognizes that insects have played a role in aspects of human
civilization, including the arts and religion

Necklace design with Brazilian

Beetles circa 1900
By Unknown artist - Catalog Photo, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64326365
Entomophagy: Insects as Food
 Why eat insects?
• Cultural delicacy
• An alternative and readily available protein source
• Climate change, environmental destruction due to
land animal agriculture (14.5% of greenhouse gas
emissions due to cow, pig and chicken agriculture)
• Unethical treatment of animals due to land animal
agriculture
 Why eat insects?
• Cultural delicacy
• An alternative and readily available protein source
• Climate change, environmental destruction due to
land animal agriculture (14.5% of greenhouse gas
emissions due to cow, pig and chicken agriculture)
• Unethical treatment of animals due to land animal
agriculture
https://thegatewaybug.com/entomophagy/
 Beondegi – steamed and seasoned silkworm pupae, served in
Chapulines – grasshoppers with chilis, garlic and lime
cups as street food (South Korea)
Traditional Oaxacan dish (Mexico)

Aku – roasted winged termite

dish from Nigeria (other African
cultures also eat winged
termites)
Kunga cake from
Phantom midges/Glassworms
(Chaoboridae adults 2-10mm)

Huge swarms of Chaoborus edulis,

resembling distant plumes of smoke
over Lake Malawi's water
Cicada 17 year emergence in Maryland = recipes
 Why eat insects?
• Cultural delicacy
• An alternative and readily available
protein source
• Climate change, environmental
destruction due to land animal
agriculture (14.5% of greenhouse gas
emissions due to cow, pig and chicken
agriculture)
• Unethical treatment of animals due to
land animal agriculture
https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation
 Why eat insects?
• Cultural delicacy
• An alternative and readily available
protein source
• Climate change, environmental
destruction due to land animal
agriculture (14.5% of greenhouse gas
emissions due to cow, pig and chicken
agriculture)
• Unethical treatment of land animals
raised for meat, milk and eggs, and
fish/seafood – animals suffer

https://thehumaneleague.org/article/what-is-factory-farming
 Are insects sentient?

“Animal sentience refers to the capacity of an animal to feel and experience

both positive and negative emotions and states…. Cognition…refers to the
processes by which animals perceive, process and store information”
Insect cognition and sentience is being studied
 Are insects sentient?

“…[T]o date there is relatively little assumed or explored regarding insect cognition, and
even less regarding sentience….We caution, however, that when faced with such little
research, we cannot assume that absence of evidence, is evidence of absence…. [I]f we
choose to consume insects, or feed them to our livestock, then we have the ethical
responsibility to ensure that production does not cause poor welfare. Therefore, whether
or not an animal is sentient and capable of suffering, is at the heart of the matter when it
comes to protective legislation. ”
Why not just eat more plants???
• Plants are alive, but not sentient
• Protein needs can easily be met by
a diet with no animal products
• A diverse plant-based diet is good
for personal health and the planet
• Preserve nutrition lost to feeding
animals for food – high in vitamins
• For more information see
forksoverknives.com, and the 2011
documentary
Plant-based options for
“animal foods”

Hasselback potatoes made to look like

bugs for Halloween
 Insects as symbols of their qualities - scarab
• The dung beetle as a depiction of
Khepri - the scarab-faced ancient
Egyptian god that moves the sun
across the heavens, and is the god of
rebirth

New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, reign of Tutankhamun,

ca. 1332-1323 BC. From Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62),
Valley of the Kings, West Thebes. Now in the Egyptian
https://eddimage.com/geotrupidae-earth-boring-dung-beetle/ Museum, Cairo. JE 61886
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khepri
Dung beetles can move 40 times their weight
Insects as symbols of their qualities: Chinese tongue
amulets
• Popular in the Han period
• Placed on the tongue of the
deceased
• Carved from jade – in Taoism jade is
associated with immortality
• Taoist idea of the emergence of an
immortal personality after death
• Metaphor of the cicada emerging
its final moult
Cicada. Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). China.
Jade – placed on the tongue of the deceased
 Cicada (Order: Hemiptera/Homoptera)

Two common types: Dog-Day Cicada

• Dog–Day Cicadas
o Adults emerge annually in July –August
o Their life cycle involves 4 – 7 years in the ground
as a nymph (larva), but generations overlap so you
see adults each year

• Periodic Cicadas
o Native to Eastern USA © 2023 The Song of Insects,

o Adults emerge May-June but

only every 13 -17 years
(depending on species)
o Spend 13-17 years as a
Periodic Cicada
nymph (larva) in the ground
Slide credit: J. Clark
Annkatrin Rose via iNaturalist, CC BY-NC 4.0
Slide credit: J. Clark
 Cicada (Order: Hemiptera/Homoptera)

• Adults live approximately 1 month and in that time Nymph

they must mate and the females lay eggs
• Female inserts eggs into live or dead tree/shrub
twigs or grasses
• Eggs typically hatch after 1 month (some species
over winter as eggs) USDA Agricultural Research Service

• Nymphs (larva) drop to the ground and enter the

soil and feeding on roots. Depending on the species
they remain in the ground for 4 to 17 years
• Moult to an adult form occurs above ground. The
nymph emerges from the ground and climbs up on
something and fastens itself with its claws
Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press
Slide credit: J. Clark
 Cicada (Order: Hemiptera/Homoptera)
• Ecdysis (moulting) of Order: Homoptera/Hemiptera
a Cicada

Discarded
exoskeleton of
a Cicada
following
ecdysis
Word Breakdown:
Ecdysis = take off
Exuviae = old animal
covering that was
removed
The discarded exoskeleton
is called the exuviae
T. Nathan Mundhenk Wikipedia Karthik Easvur Wikipedia
Slide credit: J. Clark
 https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/dog-day-cicada
• Each Cicada species has a unique song
• Typically, only males produce sound. To
attract a mate
• When rib-like bands associated with a pair
of Tymbals bend it creates a sound which is
amplified through large air sacs in the animal.

Cicada tymbals: sound-producing organs and musculature. Body of

male Cicada from below, showing cover-plates of sound-producing
organs From above showing tymbals (drums), Section showing muscles
© Hilton Pond Center which vibrate tymbals. A tymbal at rest. A tymbal thrown into vibration
(as when cicada is singing), more highly magnified
Slide credit: J. Clark
Type equation here.
Clarinet, with Cicada chorus
 Insects in Music
Flight of the Bumblebee – composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Butterflies as symbols of
freedom

When you love someone so deeply

They become your life
It's easy to succumb to overwhelming fears
inside
Blindly I imagined I could
Keep you under glass
Now I understand to hold you
I must open up my hands
And watch you rise
Spread your wings and prepare to fly
For you have become a butterfly, oh
Fly abandonedly into the sun
If you should return to me
We truly were meant to be
So spread your wings and fly
Butterfly
Insects as plague From Oingoboingo’s “Insects”
Animation from
Nina Paley’s Sedermasochism (2018)
(the 8th plague)

Insects make me scream and shout

They don't know what life's about
They don't have blood
They've got too many legs
They don't have brains in their heads
They know they'll rule the world some day
They bite and sting me anyway
They bite and sting and suck
They bite and sting and suck suck suck
They bite and sting and
Suck suck suck suck suck . . .
Dance …those insects make me – Ow!
 Boll Weevil (Anthonomus grandis)- Coleoptera
• Chewing mouthparts are at the
First segment of
end of a long snout called a the antenna is
rostrum – Boll weevils feeds on folded into a
cotton. groove on the
rostrum
• Females lay eggs some of the
feeding holes in the bud or fruit
(boll) of the cotton plant
• Larvae and pupae remain inside
the boll, adult emerges
• Commercial impact on cotton
industry
 Gossypium sp. - Cotton
Cotton Fruit
called a “boll”

Fruit – splits open to release seeds, which are

covered in fibres that are separated through
“ginning” and then spun and woven
By USDA - http://www.gipsa.usda.gov/VRI/OF/OF_cottonseed.html, Public
Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20049603
By Ton Rulkens, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21957480
The impact of insect pests
The Boll Weevil song – sung by Brook Benton
….
And the boll weevil called the farmer, 'n' he said
"Ya better sell your old machines,
'cause when I'm through with your cotton, you can't
even buy gasoline." I’m gonna
stake me a home, gotta have a home

And the boll weevil said to the farmer, said

"Farmer, I'd like to wish you well."
Farmer said to the boll weevil,
"Yeah, an' I wish that you were in hell
Lookin' for a home, lookin' for a home
 Summary
• We are part of the natural world, and we are impacted and
inspired by it even if we remove ourselves from it through
technology and mainstream culture
• Our connection to the natural world is a vital and rewarding
aspect of our lives
• Hopefully this course has helped you appreciate insects, and
that you are encouraged to learn and explore your
environment and your personal connection to this class of
animals we share the planet with!
 Next:
• Activity #5 group quiz on Weeks 9-10 – in-class individual and
group quiz December 3
• Term Project originally due Dec. 3 – 1 week extension if
requested by Dec. 3 to nats1636@yorku.ca
• Final exam (more information will be posted) – same structure
as midterm, with focus on material since the midterm
– Wednesday December 18, 7pm, Accolade West 206