Mass ratios and insect respect.

How many living insects exist in the world on any given day? 

Fig. 1. Average guy.

Scientists estimate somewhere between 1 quintillion (that's a billion billion) and 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000). With merely 6.8 billion humans on Earth, it seems we're outnumbered. 

If you're like me, you're having trouble visualizing the those numbers in terms of biomass. As luck would have it, the mathematical heavy lifting has been done, which makes the case for roughly 200 pounds of insects for each pound of human. 

Put another way, suppose the "average" human weighs about 155 pounds (70 kilograms). Multiply 155 by 200 pounds of insects and you get 31,000 pounds. So for each and every one of the 6.8 billion people on Earth, there are about 31,000 pounds of insects. 

That's the equivalent of two large African elephants.

Whoa. 

Fig. 2. Mass ratio 1:200

And here's another way to visualize it: 

Fig. 3. Average guy vs. 31,000 pounds of insects, in the form of 20 cows. 

Or hey, what about cats? 

Fig. 4.  Average guy vs. 31,000 pounds of insects, in the form of ~3,500 cats.

And then there's my favorite, 31,000 pounds of insects is roughly the equivalent of 6,500 Chihuahuas. I'm not going to draw that. I think you get the point by now. Which is...despite all the deleterious human impacts on the environment, we're still over our heads in insects. 

But we're also actively pissing off Mother Nature, and the negative effect on insects is mounting daily. 

If we continue eradicating rain forests, spraying pesticides and over-developing wild lands, we'll eventually cause the extinction of massive numbers of insect species at the base of the food chain. 

Do we really want to do that?

Fig. 5. Mass ratio, 1 person to 2 elephant-sized insects.

Sources

Smithsonian Bug Info 

MadSci Network 

S. Epilais haute couture

Inspired by S. Epilais, the Polka-dot Wasp Moth

The solution to "what to wear to an avant garde artists' wedding": The S. Epilais Ensemble. To be custom-made. 

Oh...and here's the inspiration behind it: 

oleander caterpillar...to become a polka-dot wasp moth

--and--

Check out this link to see its amazing colors!

p.s. Thank you, Josh McVety and Miranda Sharp!  Can't wait for your wedding!!

High Fives to Flies

Musca Domestica: The Cleaners

Think twice before you wish house flies would become extinct. The use of pesticides designed to kill Musca Domestica (and other insects) is actually causing more damage to the ecosystem than the flies themselves. Without them, we'd be instantly neck-deep in piles of detritus and dead matter. 

On the flip side, flies benefit our world by...

...pollinating flowers, especially in regions where bees are scarce.

...recycling food waste.

...providing food for frogs, lizards, spiders, bats, dragonflies, fish and birds.

...hastening carcass and garbage decomposition.

...providing aphid control in gardens.

...providing scientists and engineers with new applications in flight control, waste management, water quality and wound healing.

Source: Kelly Martin

Postmodern mancage

"It was either them or the Planet."

They will probably survive the apocalypse.

As durable as we humans think we are, we’ve got nothing on Euophrys omnisuperstes, aka the Himalayan jumping spider. The species name means standing above everything, and for good reason: this little hardy creature is most likely the highest known permanent resident on Earth (4.1 miles above sea level).

E. omnisuperstes occupy crevices among rocky debris, surviving long periods without food and in sub-freezing temperatures. They also don’t seem to mind the serious lack of atmospheric pressure and oxygen. The only sources of nutrition available to them are tiny stray springtails and flies that are occasionally blown up the mountainside by the wind.

Pretty impeccable survival credentials.

----

Something cool.
Check out this video of a Himalyan jumping spider catching prey.

Diopsoidea spark

Diopsoidea, the stalk-eyed flies I drew with pen and ink in my previous post, were inspired by "Skelly." He's a lovely creature, fashioned from wood, wire, clay and feathers.

Skelly's dimensions: 6"x6"x5 (including wingspan)

The Clawsecta Game, ca. 2816

Let me try for the cockroach, Mommy!!! Pleeeeeeease!!!!

Diopsoidea, or stalk-eyed flies, can see a region of space extending over more than a hemisphere in all directions. This toddler diopsid, out shopping with his mom (long after homo sapiens have disappeared from Earth), clearly sees--and knows--what he wants. 

Oxygen and the big bug theory

"It's called Oxygen. Way better than steroids."

Geologic research indicates a "pulse" occurred in the concentration of environmental oxygen during the Paleozoic era. In plain language, there was a lot more oxygen in the atmosphere 300 million years ago than there is today--roughly 35%, almost double the present-day level of 21%. 

The rise and fall of atmospheric oxygen also coincided with the evolution and extinction of giant insects. Some biologists have proposed this was more than just coincidence. They hypothesize that high oxygen levels could explain the existence of giant species. The extinction of winged monsters and gargantuan beetles after 100 million years may also be the result of decreased levels of oxygen that happened at the same time.

Source: Danika Painter, “Big big bugs”

Circa 2516

A prize-winning collection of human remains, circa the not-too-distant future.