FETISH
OR FEAR?
Dr Babita Yadav
THE UNUSUAL WAYS IN WHICH INSECTS HAVE INSPIRED HUMAN BEINGS.
Insects are the most diverse form of animals. There evolution dates
back to approximately 480 million years ago and they have been known to coexist
with human beings either as harmless, beneficial or as harmful pests, and later
category being most dreaded as. But, in reality insects are more than what most
of us think as. They have been mentioned in our ancient puranas too for
instance Maa Bhramari devi considered as an aspect of Mata Durga, is associated with bees, and hence
bees are considered as holiest insects.
Normally when insects are mentioned, feelings of awe or disgust arise,
but are they really that offensive? Insect lovers or entomophilies have different
opinion about the insects and for such people insects have been source of
inspiration.
It’s true that most of the insects are destructive either as carrier
of most deadly diseases or as pests, be it crop pest or household one. But then
there are many insects that are beneficial and productive. There are number of insect’s
species like bees, bumblebees, hoverflies beetles, wasps and butterflies which
are responsible for pollination of many plants. Honey bees and lac insects are
well known productive insects.
But there are few bizarre ways in which insects have created an
impact on us. So, herein we discuss about those unusual uses of insects.
Insect jewelry: insects have been used a jewelry since long time. During Egyptian
and Mayan period beetles were worn as ornaments. Few of the insects are truly
beautiful and colorful, good enough to be adorned as jewels. For instance elytra
of jewel beetle belonging to family Bupresitidae is used in ornaments like
earrings, necklaces, bangles etc. the colour of the elytra being beautifully iridescent
is suitable for using it as piece of any
jewelry.
Jewel beetle
Use of caddisfly larvae to create jewelry: larvae of caddisfly
belonging to order Trichoptera normally found in rivers and they spin a
temporary cocoons by using their saliva as mortar to seal twigs, sand particles
and small pebbles. But a self taught French artist Hubart Duprat got an idea to
use them to spin a cocoon made of gold and pearls and when he experimented the idea,
results were astonishingly unique tiny sculptures.
Caddis fly larave
So, some
designers have moved beyond the “ick” factor, and experimented too far with
insects as jewelry. For instance, fashion designer Jared Gold included live
insect jewelry in form of bejeweled roach brooch trend in 2006. Though the trend was short lived but had earned lot of
popularity.
In Yucatan region of Mexico where the Maquech Beetle of family Zopheridae is found in large number,
there is a fad of wearing them as live ornaments. The beetles are
bedazzled by gems, and shiny paints,
tied up with tiny chains jewelry.
Maquech beetle
Although these trends have been
often challenged by PETA as it involves cruelty according to animal right
activists.
Insect used to make alcohol: Entomophagy i.e. eating insects as food
is common in many parts of the world now days as it is considered to be an
environmental friendly protein source. But an insect used for producing alcohol
is relatively recent. Though, it’s been
long since insects have been used in coloration of wine. Campri, an Italian
alcoholic made in 1860 by Gaspare Campari in Novara, Italy. The drink gets its red tinge
from natural red dye carmine from crushed cochineal insects. But lately,
insects have been directly used to produce distinctly flavored alcohol.
Recently a Tokyo based startup named Join earth; launched cricket based craft
brew with collaboration with a Tono brewing. According to Press release,
cricket were grass fed and then roasted and brewed with malt to produce ale
which tastes like roasted caramel.
Campri wine
In
2014, the Cambridge distillery collaborated with Rene Redzepi’s Nordic Food Lab
in o produce the Anty
Gin, which contains the distillate of red wood ants, along with nettle and
some wild wood herbs. The gin is said to have “sharp citrus notes”, because of Red
wood ants.
Anty
Gin
Thailand produces
bamboo worm vodka which is triple distilled rice grain spirit infused with farm
reared bamboo worms (Omphisa fuscidentalis), steeped for several
months before it is served. It is majorly sold by a company known as ‘Thailand
Unique’.
Bamboo worm
vodka
Insects as sniffers:
Insects use olfactory senses to trace their source of food, mates and to sense danger
etc. Research has shown that insect have sophisticated sensory mechanism to
smell odors. That’s why researchers are trying to find new methods to use
insects like crickets, bees and locusts to trace land mining explosives or
illegal drugs. Associative learning can be effectively used for chemical
detection as insects are highly sensitive, easy to carry and are cost effective
too.
The
practice of using insects as sniffers is at its nascent stage and the research
work is still going on. But the prospects are highly promising. Research team
at Los Alamos
National Laboratory have improvised a method for training the common honey bee
to sense the explosives material. Using the knowledge based on bees behaviour
especially about their exceptional olfactory senses , the scientist have trained
the bees to express response (e.g. proboscis extension) by using pavlovian
techniques towards the odors of vapors from TNT ,C4, TATP explosives and
propellants. (source: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16112401)
Dr Baranidharan Raman, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
and his colleagues at the Washington University in St. Louis have experimented
on locust which has incredible olfactory senses to detect explosives by
implanting electrodes to the antennal
lobes of the insect. He says it’s literally hijacking the locust to use it as
detector for sniffing explosives.(source: https://www.yalescientific.org/2022/05/on-the-path-to-bomb-sniffing-insects%EF%BF%BC/)
In similar kind of studies, Ben
Maoz, a biomedical engineer at Tel Aviv University, Israel and co-author of the
study, connected the antenna of a locust to a small, wheeled robotic device and
exposed it to sense different odors including explosives and drugs. At the same
time he cleared that the studies are still at super preliminary stage of development
but believes its possible.(source: https://www.indiatimes.com/technology/science-and-future/robot-gets-the-sense-of-smell-using-locust-antennae-590586.html)
Suggested readings:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33401414/
https://www.thailandunique.com/other-thai-products/drinks/bamboo-worm-vodka-60ml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interactions_with_insects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_insect_jewelry#/media/File:Zopheridae_jewelry_sjh.jpg
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/07/hubert-duprat-caddisflies/
https://www.hinduscriptures.com/vedic-culture/divine-matters/insects-in-hinduism/40303/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buprestidae
https://cambridgedistillery.co.uk/products/anty-gin
https://edukemy.com/daily-current-affairs/sniffing-robot-with-locust-antennae/2023-02-09
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