About 50 Ann Arbor community members gathered Wednesday evening at the Ann Arbor Downtown District Library to hear entomologist Barrett Klein discuss his book “The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture.” Klein studies the connection between humans and insects and centered his discussion of the book around the ways in which insects impact humans’ lives.
Speaking to the crowd, Klein said he finds that humans tend to ignore the positive impacts associated with insects.
“Our association with insects is ancient, deep, complicated and conflicted,” Klein said. “At times, we can’t dismiss our negative associations but I’d say they’re far outweighed by the positive impacts that we tend to dismiss.”
On the positive impacts of insects, Klein highlighted products from insects that benefit humans’ lives such as silk. Specifically, Klein showed the audience a silk moth caterpillar’s cocoon.
“Here I have got a silk moth caterpillar’s cocoon that she has produced,” Klein said. “She spun this very strong, lustrous, mile-long fiber to produce a cocoon within which she could safely develop and then close or emerge as a weaned adult.”
Klein also pointed out that insects play a role in manufacturing the ink used in historical documents like the Declaration of Independence and the work of famous artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci. The ink is derived from oak gall wasps, which is created after laying their eggs in oak trees.
“Da Vinci’s drawings and Van Gogh’s drawings are made with permanent ink that’s induced in the tannins of an oak tree by oak gall wasps,” Klein said. “What they do is, in the DNA, the larva physiologically induces a chemical cascade in which the plant builds a defensive gall and tannins that can be gathered by humans to create these indelible works.”
Attendee Rachel Gray told The Daily she attended the event after discovering Klein’s book for her sister, who is also an entomologist.
“I do not like bugs, but I could tell the book was made to get people enthused about (insects), so I figured I would enjoy the talk,” Gray said. “It was fun to see how excited (Klein) was about everything.”
Rackham student Sol Rabine told The Daily that when they saw the title of Klein’s book, they knew they wanted to attend the event.
“I came because I really love insects,” Rabine said. “It is one of my biggest interests. (I found it interesting) that he said when you lick a stink bug’s shoulders, it tastes like cinnamon. I might try it.”
Daily Staff Reporter Arielle Levine can be reached at ariellel@umich.edu.
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