Insects and Climate Change (5)
Well, human engineers have learned a lot from them. Did you know that the chain saw is believed to be patterned after the mouth of the long-horn beetle? A Japanese company invented a construction material made from snail shells that doesn’t stain easily. And scientists have been studying mosquitoes’ stinging mechanism to develop “painless” injection needles. There are many other examples.
Fascinating. Tel me, what’s your favorite insect species?
Cockroaches-no question.
Yuck! Really?
Yep, that’s how people usually react. But cockroaches are very social creatures. They’re quite smart and interesting to observe. I don’t mean the kind you see in Manhattan, though. I used to keep a family of them in an insect cage in Tokyo. They were giant burrowing cockroaches, natives of Australia, that I had to bought from a local pet shop.
Maybe the Japanese have a different take on insects than us Americans. What do you think, Kyohei?
I guess you could say that. We enjoy the chirping sound of crickets in the fall. My father tells me there used to be insect vendors strolling the streets of Tokyo in the 1950s and ‘60s, peddling different types of six-legged creatures. Japanese schoolchildren still like to keep rhinoceros beetles, grasshoppers and other insects at home. The only difference from my parents’ days is that they actually went into the woods and caught them. Today’s kids buy them at pet shops.
