Insectopedia

by Hugh Raffles

  Tort, Patrick. Fabre: Le Miroir aux Insectes. Paris: Vuibert/Adapt, 2002.

  Tregenza, T., N. Wedell, and T. Chapman. “Introduction. Sexual Conflict: A New Paradigm?” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 361 (2006): 229–34.

  Tsunoda Tadanobu. The Japanese Brain: Uniqueness and Universality. Translated by Yoshinori Oiwa. Tokyo: Taishukan, 1985.

  Tuan, Yi-Fu. “Discrepancies Between Environmental Attitude and Behaviour: Examples from Europe and China.” Canadian Geographer 12, no. 3 (1968): 176–91.

  Uexküll, Jakob von. “A Stroll through the World of Animals and Men: A Picture Book of Invisible Worlds.” In Instinctive Behavior: The Development of a Modern Concept, edited and translated by Claire H. Schiller, 5–80. New York: International Universities Press, 1957.

  Uvarov, Boris Petrovich. Grasshoppers and Locusts: A Handbook of General Acridology. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966.

  Vignau-Wilberg, Thea. Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnagelii (1592): Nature, Poetry and Science in Art around 1600. Munich, Germany: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, 1994.

  Vilencia, Jeff. The American Journal of the Crush-Freaks. 2 vols. Bellflower, Calif.: Squish Publications, 1993–96.

  Wade, Nicholas. “Flyweights, Yes, but Fighters Nonetheless: Fruit Flies Bred for Aggressiveness.” New York Times, October 10, 2006.

  Wagner, David L. Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.

  Weindling, Paul Julian. Epidemics and Genocide in Eastern Europe, 1890–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

  Weiss, Sheila Faith. “The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany.” Osiris 3 (1987): 193–226.

  Wolfe, Cary, ed. Zoontologies: The Question of the Animal. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

  Wu Zhao Lian. Xishuai mipu [Secret Cricket Books]. Tianjin, China: Gu Ji Shu Dan Ancient Books, 1992.

  Yajima Minoru. Mushi ni aete yokatta [I Am Happy That I Met Insects]. Tokyo: Froebel-kan, 2004.

  Yoro Takeshi and Miyazaki Hayao. Mushime to anime. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 2002.

  Yoro Takeshi, Okumoto Daizaburo, and Ikeda Kiyohiko. San-nin yoreba mushi-no-chi’e [Put Three Heads Together to Match the Wisdom of a Mushi]. Tokyo: Yosensya, 1996.

  Zinsser, Hans. Rats, Lice and History: Being a Study in Biography, which, after Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals with the Life History of Typhus Fever. Boston, Mass.: Atlantic Monthly Press/Little, Brown, and Company, 1935.

  Zylberberg, Michael. “The Trial of Alfred Nossig: Traitor or Victim.” Wiener Library Bulletin 23 (1969): 41–45.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  During the years it took to research and write this book I was almost always outside my areas of expertise and more than usually dependent on the generosity of others. A huge number of people helped me, some with individual chapters, others with advice and encouragement throughout the entire time. In most cases, I can only list them by name and add simply that one of the great pleasures of the past few years has been the opportunity to learn so much from so many of them.

  As always, my first and deepest thanks are to my dearest friend and co-conspirator Sharon Simpson. Every idea and feeling in this book has traveled back and forth between us endless times. It is not just that this book would be different without her, it simply wouldn’t exist.

  My gratitude and appreciation goes also to everyone who trusted me enough to let me write about their lives. In particular, I’m grateful to Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, David Dunn, Fang Dali, Jeff Vilencia, Kawasaki Mitsuya, Li Shijun, Sugiura Tetsuya, Yajima Minoru, and Yoro Takeshi.

  Equally significant has been the contribution of the three talented and dedicated research collaborators, now friends, who in fundamental ways co-wrote the major fieldwork chapters with me: Hu YanJun in China, Shige (CJ) Suzuki in Japan, and Abdoulkarim Saidou in Niger.

  That fieldwork could not have happened without some extraordinary kindness from other friends old and new. For this, I’m especially grateful to Mei Zhan, Huang Jingying, Tyler Rooker, Ding Xiaoqian, Mahamane Tidjani Alou, Nassirou Bako Arifari, Shiho Satsuka, Gavin Whitelaw, and Thomas Bierschenk.

  Back in the United States, I benefited greatly from the skilled bibliographic, translation, and interpretive work of Steve Connell, Ling Chen, Hisae Kawamori, Gabrielle Popoff, and Yumiko Iwasaki.

  I’m indebted to Denise Shannon, my literary agent, for her good humor, patience, and wisdom, and to Dan Frank, my editor at Pantheon, for not only encouraging me to go my own way but gently insisting I do so. My thanks also to Michiko Clark, Altie Karper, Jill Verrillo, and Abigail Winograd at Pantheon.

  I’m grateful to The New School for providing me with an exhilarating work environment and for the paycheck and research funds that allowed all this to happen, and to Jim Scott and Kay Mansfield at the Yale Program in Agrarian Studies for the year’s fellowship (in all senses of the term) that gave me the chance to develop the initial shape of this project.

  Without the following people—and I’m certain also others whom I’ve inadvertently omitted—this book would have been far less: Adriana Aquino, Al Lingis, Alan Christy, Alex Bick, Alexei Yurchak, Alondra Nelson, Amber Benezra, Anand Pandian, Ann Stoler, Anna Tsing, Anne-Marie Slézec, Annemarie Mol, Antoinette Tidjani Alou, Arjun Appadurai, Arun Agrawal, Ayako Furuta, Barrett Klein, Ben Orlove, Beth Povinelli, Bill Maurer, Boureima Alpha Gado, Brantley Bardin, Bruce Braun, Carla Freccero, Carol Breckenridge, Charles Whitcroft, Charlie Piot, Christine Padoch, Claudio Lomnitz, Dan Linger, David Porter, Dejan Lukic, Dieter Hall, Dilip Menon, Ding Xuewen, Don Kulick, Don Moore, Donna Haraway, Ed Kamens, Emily Martin, Eric Hamilton, Eric Worby, Ernst-August Seyfarth, Faisal Devji, Fatema Ahmed, Federico Finchelstein, Fred Appel, Fu Shui Miao, Fu Zhou Liang, Gabriel Vignoli, Gail Hershatter, Gary Shapiro, Graham Burnett, Grzegorz Sokol, Heather Watson, Hoon Song, Hsiung Ping-chen, Hylton White, Iijima Kazuhiko, Ilana Gershon, I-Yi Hsieh, Jacek Nowakowski, Jake Kosek, Janelle Lamoreaux, Janet Roitman, Janet Sturgeon, Jean-Yves Durand, Jim Clifford, Jin Xingbao, Jody Greene, Joe Masco, John Marlovits, Jonathan Bach, June Howard, Karen Davidson, Katharine Gates, Kimio Honda, Larry Hirschfeld, Lawrence Cohen, Leander Schneider, Lee Hendrix, Li Jun, Lisa Rofel, Louise Fortmann, Martin Lasden, Matt Wolf-Meyer, Maya Gautschi, Mick Taussig, Miguel Pinedo-Vásquez, Miriam Ticktin, Monica Phillipo, Nancy Jacobs, Nancy Peluso, Nataki Hewlett, Natasha Copeland, Neferti Tadiar, Niki Labruto, Noriko Aso, Norma Field, Oana Mateescu, Ohira Hiroshi, Okumoto Daizaburo, Orit Halpern, Paolo Palladino, Paul Gilroy, Peter Lindner, Ralph Litzinger, Rebecca Hardin, Rebecca Solnit, Rebecca Stein, Reiko Matsumiya, Rhea Rahman, Riccardo Innocenti, Roberto Koshikawa, Rotem Geva, Saba Mahmood, Sally Heckel, Shao Honghua, Sina Najafi, Stefan Helmreich, Stuart McLean, Susan Harding, Susan O’Donovan, Susanna Hecht, Tao Zhi Qing, Tim Choy, Tjitske Holtrop, Tom Baione, Toni Schlesinger, Vicky Hattam, Vron Ware, Vyjayanthi Rao, Wang Yuegen, Wendy Yu, Wulan, Yangtian Feng, Yen-ling Tsai, Yi Yinjiong, and Yukiko Koga.

  Finally, there are a good number of people in this book whom, for various reasons, I refer to by pseudonym. Some are people in Shanghai who talked to me in unsafe circumstances. Others are people whose names I never learned but who shared their knowledge with me in markets, stores, museums, on street corners, and in all those places where insects find their way into our lives. To them, and to the residents of Dandasay, Dan mata Sohoua, and Rijio Oubandawakim in Niger and, once again, to my friends in Igarapé Guariba in Brazil, I extend my heartfelt thanks.

  Illustration Credits

  Image courtesy of USDA

  Image courtesy of USDA

  Photo by author

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of Cornelia Hesse-Honneger

  Image courtesy of New York University Libraries

  Image courtesy of Cornelia Hesse-Honneger

  From Jay M. Gould and Benjamin A. Goldman wit
h Kate Millpointer, Deadly Deceit: Low-Level Radiation High-Level Cover-up, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1990. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, a member of Perseus Books Group

  Images courtesy of Cornelia Hesse-Honneger

  Map courtesy of Cornelia Hesse-Honnegger

  Image courtesy of Cornelia Hesse-Honneger

  Photo by author

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift, 1999 (1999.411) Copy Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris

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  Photo by P.-H. Fabre

  Image courtesy of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris

  Photo by C. Truc

  Republished with kind permission of All-Nippon Airlines

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  Image courtesy of Hu YanJun

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  Images courtesy of Dai Honghai

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  By kind permission of Li Shijun

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  Photo reproduced with kind permission of The Shanghai Evening Post

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  Images courtesy of Herman A. Dierick

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  Image from Calvin B. Bridges and T. H. Morgan, “The Third Chromosome Group of Mutant Character of Drosophila melanogaster” (Carnegie Institute, 1923), reprinted courtesy of The Carnegie Institute

  Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate LVII, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

  Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate I, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

  Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate XLIII, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

  Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate V, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

  Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate LIV, Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

  Arthur Szyk, Oh Ye Dry Bones, Hear the Word of the Lord, cover of The Answer (1944). Reproduced with the cooperation of The Arthur Szyk Society, Burlingame, Calif. www.szyk.org

  Shmuel Hirszenberg, The Wandering Jew (1899). Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Photo © The Israel Museum/David Harris

  Alfred Nossig, The Wandering Jew (1901). From the Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York

  Garry Hunter/Wellcome Images

  Opening event of the “Ausstellung jüdischer Künstler” (Exhibition of Jewish Artists), Berlin, 1907. From the Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York

  Generalgouvernment poster “Jews-Lice-Typhus” (1940). Reproduced from the collection of the Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Krakow, sygn. BJ 749040 III 59 Rara

  Model of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination facilities by Mieczyslaw Stobierski. Courtesy of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

  Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium, 1705, plate 14, Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History Library

  Wilhelm von Osten and his horse “The Clever Hans.” 1904. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, N.Y.

  (left)After Hildtraut Steinhoff, Z. vergl. Physiol. 31, 38–57, 1948; (right) Photo by Dr. Schick

  Photo from A Biologist Remembers by Karl von Frisch, translated by Lisbeth Gombrich, p.41, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1967

  Photo from A Biologist Remembers by Karl von Frisch, translated by Lisbeth Gombrich, p.28, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1967

  After Karl von Frisch, “Sprechende Tänze im Bienenvolk,” Festrede in der Bayer. Akad. Wiss., 1954

  Reprinted by permission of the publisher from The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees by Karl von Frisch, translated by Leigh E. Chadwick, p. 137, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1967, 1993 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

  (top)Reprinted from Bees, Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language by Karl von Frisch, p. 88, by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press; (bottom) After M. Renner, Z. vergl. Physiol. 42, 449–83, 1959

  (top) Reprinted from Bees, Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language by Karl von Frisch, p. 55, by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press; (bottom) Photo by M. Renner

  Reprinted by permission of the publisher from The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees by Karl von Frisch, translated by Leigh E. Chadwick, p. 166, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1967, 1993 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

  Reprinted from Bees, Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language by Karl von Frisch, p.1, by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press

  Reprinted by permission of the publisher from Communication Among Social Bees, Revised Edition by Martin Lindauer, p. 14, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1961 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1989 by Martin Lindauer

  Reprinted by permission of the publisher from Communication Among Social Bees, Revised Edition by Martin Lindauer, p. 18, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1961 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1989 by Martin Lindauer

  Photo by Harald Doering

  Illustration by Bill Russell www.billustration.com

  Map of breeding areas and major movements of locusts during plagues reproduced by permission of the publisher from G. B. Popov, Atlas of Desert Locust Breeding Habits, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization, 1997

  Photo by author

  Photo by author

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  Map of breeding areas and major movements of locusts during recessions reproduced by permission of the publisher from G. B. Popov, Atlas of Desert Locust Breeding Habits, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization, 1997

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of Gillian Raffles

  Photo by author

  Image reproduced with kind permission of Franca Principe, IMSS–Florence

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of Banca Dati dell’Archivio Storico Foto Locchi Firenze (Archivio Foto Locchi Databank, Florence)

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of George O. Krizek

  Photo of West Indian manatees copyright © Phillip Colla/www.oceanlight.com

  Photo by author

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of Jeff Vilencia

  Image courtesy of Jeff Vilencia

  Images courtesy of Jeff Vilencia

  Image courtesy of Jeff Vilencia

  Image courtesy of Jeff Vilencia

  AP Photo/Los Angeles Daily News, Michael Owen Baker

  Image courtesy of Jeff Vilencia

  Photo by Onno Zweers, Creative Commons Attribution and ShareAlike license (CC-BY-SA)

  Reprinted with kind permission of Natasha LeBas

  Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Academy Studios, Novato, California

  Reprinted from Bees, Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language by Karl von Frisch, p. 7, by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press

  (both) Images courtesy of Thomas Eisner, Cornell University

  “Grey drone-fly” repoduced from Robert Hooke, Micrographia. Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

  (top) Image reproduced from Sigmund Exner, The Physiology of the Compound Eyes of Insects and Crustaceans, R. C. Hartree, ed. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1989; (bottom) Image reprinted from Edward Gaten, “Optics and Phylogeny: Is There an Insight? The E
volution of Superposition Eyes in the Decapoda (Crustacea),” Contributions to Zoology, 67 (4) 223–36 (1998), with kind permission of Edward Gaten and Contributions to Zoology

  (top) Image reprinted from Edward Gaten “Optics and Phylogeny: Is There an Insight? The Evolution of Superposition Eyes in the Decapoda (Crustacea),” Contributions to Zoology, 67 (4) 223–36 (1998), with kind permission of Edward Gaten and Contributions to Zoology; (bottom) Image reprinted by permission of the publisher from Michael F. Land and Dan-Eric Nilsson, Animal Eyes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002

  Reprinted from Instinctive Behavior by Claire Schiller by permission of International Universities Press, Inc. Copyright 1957 by IUP

  Photo courtesy of Paul Ingles http://www.paulingles.com/

  Image courtesy of David Dunn

  Photo courtesy of A. Steven Munson, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

  By kind permission of William M. Ciesla, Forest Health Management International, United States

  Photo by author

  Reprinted from Karl von Frisch, Ten Little Housemates, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1960

  Photo by author

  Image courtesy of Yoro Takeshi

  Image courtesy of Yoro Takeshi

  Image courtesy of the Tezuka Osamu Museum, Takarazuka, Japan

  Photo by author

  Photo by author

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  Images made available courtesy of Sega Corporation. © SEGA. All rights reserved

  Image courtesy of Yajima Minoru

  Images from Senchufu by Tanshu Kurimoto reproduced courtesy of the National Diet Library, Japan

  Image reproduced with kind permission of Shiga Usuke

  Poster courtesy of Mushi-sha, Tokyo

  Image reproduced with kind permission of Shiga Usuke

  Photo by author

  (endnotes) Reprinted by permission of the publisher from The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees by Karl von Frisch, translated by Leigh E. Chadwick, p. 132, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1967, 1993 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College