Insects

"Swarm Intelligence can be defined more precisely as: Any attempt to design algorithms or distributed problem-solving methods inspired by the collective behavior of the social insect colonies or other animal societies. The main properties of such systems are flexibility, robustness, decentralization and self-organization."

"When I behold what pleasure is Pursuit, What life, what glorious eagerness it is, Then mark how full Possession falls from this, How fairer seems the blossom than the fruit,— I am perplext, and often stricken mute, Wondering which attained the higher bliss, The wing'd insect, or the chrysalis It thrust aside with unreluctant foot."

"The mortal enemies of man are not his fellows of another continent or race; they are the aspects of the physical world which limit or challenge his control, the disease germs that attack him and his domesticated plants and animals, and the insects that carry many of these germs as well as working notable direct injury. This is not the age of man, however great his superiority in size and intelligence; it is literally the age of insects."

"The individual human being, as such, does not—cannot—have any volition. ...the human being is not an autonomous entity. ...merely an infinitesimal part of the totality of manifestation. ...he has, like any other sentient being (insect or animal), been endowed with . ...he has, in addition been endowed with intellect. In the absence of consciousness, there is no sentience, no intellect... no manifest world."

"Laws, as we read in ancient sages, Have been like cobwebs in all ages: Cobwebs for little flies are spread, And laws for little folks are made; But if an insect of renown, Hornet or beetle, wasp or drone, Be caught in quest of sport or plunder, The flimsy fetter flies in sunder."

"Oh, those scoundrelly Charity Commissioners! […] By the side of these anthropoid apes, the genuine bookworm, the paper-eating insect, ravenous as he once was, has done comparatively little mischief."

"Human beings suffer from a 'centralized mindset'; they would like to assign the coordination of activities to a central command. But the way social insects form highways and other amazing structures such as bridges, chains, nests (by the way, African fungus-growing termites have invented air conditioning) and can perform complex tasks (nest building, defense, cleaning, brood care, foraging, etc) is very different: they self-organize through direct and indirect interactions."

"The most amazing thing about social insect colonies is that there's no individual in charge. If you look at a single ant, you may have the impression that it is behaving, if not randomly, at least not in synchrony with the rest of the colony. You feel that it is doing its own things without paying too much attention to what the others are doing."

"I don't know but you have spoken too highly of Gibbon's book; the Dean of Derry, who is our Club as well as Gibbon, talks of answering it. I think it is right that as fast as infidel wasps or venomous insects, whether creeping or flying, are hatched, they should be crushed. [...] He is an ugly, affected, disgusting fellow, and poisons our literary Club to me."

"The same Being that fashioned the insect, whose existence is only discerned by a microscope, and gave that invisible speck a system of ducts and other organs to perform its vital functions, created the enormous mass of the planet thirteen hundred times larger than our earth, and launched it in its course round the sun, and the comet, wheeling with a velocity that would carry it round our globe in less than two minutes of time, and yet revolving through so prodigious a space that it takes near six centuries to encircle the sun!"

"Weep not for little greenflies who are orphaned in the morning; They need no mother's tender care - by evening they'll be spawning. Nor doth the greenfly malice bear for swatting her relations! She just lays eggs upon the dregs of slaughtered generations. And if she comes up smiling when with soap-suds she's been plastered, There's only one thing to be done, So let me go and get my gun, And shoot the little dastard!"

"What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?" the Gnat inquired. "I don't rejoice in insects at all," Alice explained, "because I'm rather afraid of them—at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them." "Of course they answer to their names?" the Gnat remarked carelessly. "I never knew them to do it." "What's the use of their having names," the Gnat said, "if they won't answer to them?" "No use to them," said Alice; "but it's useful to the people who name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?"

"I wonder if that's the reason insects are so fond of flying into candles - because they want to turn into Snap-dragon-flies!"

"These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes — nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the "good" and the "bad," to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil — all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called "insecticides," but "biocides.""

"Even today, when an Aboriginal mother notices the first stirrings of speech in her child, she lets it handle the "things" of that particular country: leaves, fruit, insects and so forth. "We give our children guns and computer games," Wendy said. "They gave their children the land.""

"Science studies what's at the edge of understanding, and what's at the edge of understanding is usually fairly simple. And it rarely reaches human affairs. Human affairs are way too complicated. In fact even understanding insects is an extremely complicated problem in the sciences. So the actual sciences tell us virtually nothing about human affairs."

"Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge."

"Loud is the summer's busy song The smallest breeze can find a tongue, While insects of each tiny size Grow teasing with their melodies, Till noon burns with its blistering breath Around, and day lies still as death."

"It’s phenomenal that any insect transforms. They all do. That’s part of being an insect."

"There is a God! Inanimate nature, from the pebble upon the beach, to the orb that shines in the vaulted sky, declares it; and animate existence, from the tiniest insect, to before the throne. The earth is full of Him."

"We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act… Our faculties are more fitted to recognize the wonderful structure of a beetle than a Universe."

"What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions? … Hence the same names can be given to the homologous bones in widely different animals. We see the same great law in the construction of the mouths of insects: what can be more different than the immensely long spiral of a sphinx-moth, the curious folded one of a bee or bug, and the great jaws of a beetle?—yet all these organs, serving for such different purposes, are formed by infinitely numerous modifications of an upper lip, mandibles, and two pairs of maxillæ."

"The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children. Even insects play together, as has been described by that excellent observer, P. Huber, who saw ants chasing and pretending to bite each other, like so many puppies."

"Even insects express anger, terror, jealousy, and love by their stridulation."

"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. "Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust."

"What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration by the length of your own days. You judge of the continuous existence of the world, as an ephemeral insect might judge of yours. The world is eternal for you, as you are eternal to the being that lives but for one instant. Yet the insect is the more reasonable of the two. For what a prodigious succession of ephemeral generations attests your eternity! What an immeasurable tradition! Yet shall we all pass away, without the possibility of assigning either the real extension that we filled in space, or the precise time that we shall have endured. Time, matter, space—all, it may be, are no more than a point."

"The reason we fart... For animals like spiders and insects, there are similar processes! Some animals like termites, for example, better match us as they, too, have methane-producing bacteria in their guts which helps them break down wood! For other animals, other digestive processes make waste products and sometimes gas, so yes, spiders (and insects) do fart, in a sense! Since their exoskeletons are generally rigid, though, they may not produce the sound we associate with farting, thus, you might say that most spider and insect farts are "silent but deadly"!"

"The gregarious habit of certain larvae supplies a possible solution... if we are willing to accept the view that the distasteful quality of the imago, which warning colours are so well adapted to advertise, is itself merely a by-product due to the persistence of nauseous substances acquired through the protection afforded to the larva. For, although with the adult insect the effect of increased distastefulness upon the actions of the predator will be merely to make that individual predator avoid all members of the persecuted species, and so... to confer no advantage upon its genotype, with gregarious larvae the effect will certainly be to give the increased protection especially to one particular group of larvae, probably brothers and sisters of the individual attacked. The selective potency... applies to the whole of a possibly numerous brood. There is thus no doubt of the real efficacy of this form of selection, though it may well be doubted if all cases of insect distastefulness can be explained by the same principle."

"People throughout the world have been eating insects as a regular part of their diets for millennia. ...The earliest citing of can be found in biblical literature... From ants to beetle larvae – eaten by tribes in Africa and Australia as part of their subsistence diets – to the popular, crispy-fried locusts and beetles enjoyed in Thailand, it is estimated that insect-eating is practised regularly by at least 2 billion people worldwide. More than 1900 insect species have been documented in literature as edible, most of them in tropical countries. The most commonly eaten insect groups are beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, cicadas, leaf and planthoppers, scale insects and true bugs, termites, dragonflies and flies. ...Insects are healthy, nutritious alternatives to mainstream staples... Insects promoted as food emit considerably fewer greenhouse gases (GHGs) than most livestock... insects are very efficient at converting feed into protein. Insects can be fed on organic waste streams. ...Insect harvesting/rearing is a low-tech, low-capital investment option... Insect rearing can be low-tech or very sophisticated, depending on the level of investment."

"The better sort here pretend to the utmost compassion for animals of every kind. To hear them speak, a stranger would be apt to imagine they could hardly hurt the gnat that stung them: they seem so tender and so full of pity, that one would take them for the harmless friends of the whole creation; the protectors of the meanest insect or reptile that was privileged with existence. And yet, would you believe it? I have seen the very men who have thus boasted of their tenderness, at the same time devouring the flesh of six different animals toasted up in a fricassee. Strange contrariety of conduct! they pity and they eat the objects of their compassion."

"The Creator would appear as endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and for beetles on the other..."

"Wondering how golden-crowned s, which eat insects from open branches, survive the Maine winters..."

"Some people think very much of turnips, parsnips and rutabagas as food, but many insects like them even less. Dr. E. P. Lichtenstein and his co-workers... have isolated materials from all three vegetables that can kill a number of insect pests, including vinegar flies, Mexican bean beatles, mosquito larvae, houseflies and mites. There is also strong evidence that the roots of cabbages, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, kale, mustard and kohlrabi have this same built-in protection against the insect world, says Dr. Lichtenstein."

"From one point of view we can say that we have human bodies and are practicing the Buddha's teachings and are thus much better than insects. But we can also say that insects are innocent and free from guile, where as we often lie and misrepresent ourselves in devious ways in order to achieve our ends or better ourselves. From this perspective, we are much worse than insects."

"Your thirty-six dissections must have cost you a deal of time and labor,—the Master said. —What have I to do with time, but to fill it up with labor?—answered the Scarabee.—It is my meat and drink to work over my beetles. My holidays are when I get a rare specimen. My rest is to watch the habits of insects,—those that I do not pretend to study. Here is my muscarium, my home for house-flies; very interesting creatures; here they breed and buzz and feed and enjoy themselves, and die in a good old age of a few months. My favorite insect lives in this other case; she is at home, but in her private-chamber; you shall see her. He tapped on the glass lightly, and a large, gray, hairy spider came forth from the hollow of a funnel-like web. —And this is all the friend you have to love?—said the Master, with a tenderness in his voice which made the question very significant. —Nothing else loves me better than she does, that I know of,—he answered. —To think of it! Not even a dog to lick his hand, or a cat to purr and rub her fur against him!"

"I am not sorry for having wrought in common, crude material so much; that is the right American stuff; and perhaps hereafter, when my din is done, if anyone is curious to know what that noise was, it will be found to have proceeded from a small insect which was scraping about on the surface of our life and trying to get into its meaning for the sake of the other insects larger or smaller. That is, such has been my unconscious work; consciously, I was always, as I still am, trying to fashion a piece of literature out of the life next at hand."

"What a world of wonders is there opened to our view, in the transformations the insect tribe undergo, from the period of their birth, to the full and complete development of their several organs. Unless well assured of the fact, how could we imagine the feeble helpless worm... would ever become the industrious, enterprising ant, furnished with organs of motion and of flight. How devoid would appear the statement... that the magnificent butterfly we see hovering from flower to flower, ever drew its origin from the creeping caterpillar. But these changes... are yet equalled by other circumstances connected with the metamorphoses of insects, for with these changes in appearance, the animal alters its habits and mode of life. The butterfly in its first or larva state of existence eats voraciously... greatly disproportioned to its size... in its second or pupa state, this inordinate apetite ceases, and all its active powers are suspended; in its third imago, or perfect state, no longer bound... it takes a wider range, cleaves the regions of the air, and sips the nectar of flowers. The beautiful silver-winged insect () now crossing our path, passed the first part of its existence as a water insect, and that little creature (Ephemera) we see sporting in a sun-beam, whose existence as a winged insect is limited only to a few hours... has also passed the first period of its life in the same element. The common gnat, that so much annoys us on our evening walks, was originally an inhabitant of some stagnant pool. The beetle that flits along at eve-tide, lay in a worm-like state for a considerable period, locked up in the caverned chambers of the earth, and—but why proceed, when the whole insect tribe, generally speaking, undergo such developments."

"It is estimated that insects form part of the traditional diets of at least 2 billion people. More than 1 900 species have reportedly been used as food. Insects deliver a host of ecological services that are fundamental to the survival of humankind. They also play an important role as pollinators in plant reproduction, in improving soil fertility through waste bioconversion, and in natural biocontrol for harmful pest species, and they provide a variety of valuable products for humans such as honey and silk and medical applications such as maggot therapy."

"The word insect derives from the Latin word insectum, meaning “with a notched or divided body”, literally “cut into sections”, from the fact that insects’ bodies have three parts. Pliny the Elder created the word, translating the Greek word ἔντομος (entomos) or insect (as in entomology, which was Aristotle’s term for this class of life), also in reference to their “notched” bodies. The term was first documented in English in 1601 in Holland’s translation of Pliny (Harpe and McCormack, 2001)."

"Over the past 400 million years, evolution has produced a wide variety of arthropod species adapted to their environments. About 1 million of the 1.4 million described animal species on earth are insects, and millions more are believed to exist. Contrary to popular belief, of the 1 million described insect species, only 5 000 can be considered harmful to crops, livestock or human beings (Van Lenteren, 2006)."

"A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still."

"A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream, I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window-pane from the outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to a golden scarab one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (), which, contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt the urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since."

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect."

"As soon as I am outside my religious understanding, I feel as an insect with which children are playing must feel, because life seems to have dealt with me so unmercifully; as soon as I am inside my religious understanding, I understand that precisely this has absolute meaning for me. Hence, that which in one case is a dreadful jest is in another sense the most profound earnestness. Earnestness is basically not something simple, a simplex, but is a compositum compound, for true earnestness is the unity of jest and earnestness."

"All things are connected with all things throughout the universe, from the insect to the archangel..."

"No one has any right to be angry with me, if I think fit to enumerate man among the quadrapeds. Man is neither a stone nor a plant, but an animal, for such is his way of living and moving; nor is he a worm, for then he would have only one foot; nor an insect, for then he would have antennae; nor a fish, for he has no fins; nor a bird, for he has no wings. Therefore, he is a quadraped, had a mouth like that of other quadrapeds, and finally four feet, on two of which he goes, and uses the other two for prehensive purposes."

"It would be quite false to say that competition is the only relation that obtains between species. Mutual dependence is in general quite as important. Each kind exists within an ecosystem, and needs the others to keep the system going. Thus, grazing animals on the African plains co-exist because each specializes in eating some particular kind of plant, and needs the others to keep the whole pasture at a balanced level. They depend, too, on each other's specialized capacities to give warning of danger. … each also depends for survival on innumerable others, such as the insects which pollinate the plants, the fauna of their intestines and of course their predators. It is unthinkable that any species should be an island."

"How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun's rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all round the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche débris—we hear them boom again, for we read past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarse senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite."

"How still the woods seem from here, yet how lively a stir the hidden animals are making; digging, gnawing, biting, eyes shining, at work and play, getting food, rearing young, roving through the underbrush, climbing the rocks, wading solitary marshes, tracing the banks of the lakes and streams! Insect swarms are dancing in the sunbeams, burrowing in the ground, diving, swimming,—a cloud of witnesses telling Nature's joy."

"By "nationalism" I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled "good" or "bad.""

"Lead your child by the hand to the great scenes of nature; teach him on the mountain and in the valley. There he will listen better to your teaching; the liberty will give him greater force to surmount difficulties. But in these hours of liberty it should be nature that teaches rather than you. Do not allow yourself to prevail for the pleasure of success in your teaching; or to desire in the least to proceed when nature diverts him; do not take away in the least the pleasure which she offers him. Let him completely realize that it is nature that teaches, and that you, with your art, do nothing more than walk quietly at her side. When he hears a bird warble or an insect hum on a leaf, then cease your talk; the bird and the insect are teaching; your business is then to be silent."

"A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man, who in endeavouring to crush it gave himself a hard slap. Then said the fly jeeringly, "You wanted to revenge the sting of a tiny insect with death; what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?""

"Phenomena are constantly folded back upon themselves. ...The Myself; reducing everything to the Soul-atom; making everything blossom into God; entangling all activities, from the highest to the lowest, in the obscurity of a dizzying mechanism; hanging the flight of an insect upon the movement of the earth; subordinating, perhaps, if only by the identity of the law, the eccentric evolutions of the comet in the firmament, to the whirlings of the infusoria in the drop of water."

"You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects don't have politics. They're very brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but...I'm afraid... I'm saying I-I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man, and loved it. But now the dream is over...and the insect is awake."

"Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when sings?"

"A man is really ethical only when he obeys the constraint laid on him to help all life which he is able to succor, and when he goes out of his way to avoid injuring anything living. He does not ask how far this or that life deserves sympathy as valuable in itself, nor how far it is capable of feeling. To him life as such is sacred. He shatters no ice crystal that sparkles in the sun, tears no leaf from its tree, breaks off no flower, and is careful not to crush any insect as he walks. If he works by lamplight on a summer evening, he prefers to keep the window shut and to breathe stifling air, rather than to see insect after insect fall on his table with singed and sinking wings. If he goes out in to the street after a rainstorm and sees a worm which has strayed there, he reflects that it will certainly dry up in the sunshine, if it does not quickly regain the damp soil into which it can creep, and so he helps it back from the deadly paving stones into the lush grass. Should he pass by an insect which has fallen into a pool, he spares the time to reach it a leaf or stalk on which it may clamber and save itself. The man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give every will-to-live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own. He experiences that other life in his own."

"Little minds mistake little objects for great ones, and lavish away upon the former that time and attention which only the latter deserve. To such mistakes we owe the numerous and frivolous tribe of insect-mongers, shell-mongers, and pursuers and driers of butterflies, etc. The strong mind distinguishes, not only between the useful and the useless, but likewise between the useful and the curious."

"They tell you what it's ingredients are, and how it's guaranteed to exterminate every insect in the world, but they do not tell you whether or not it's painless. And I say, insect or man, death should always be painless."

"To a first approximation, all multicellular species on earth are insects."

"In ancient times, the sacred Plough employ'd The Kings and awful Fathers of mankind: And some, with whom compared your insect-tribes Are but the beings of a summer's day, Have held the Scale of Empire, ruled the Storm Of mighty War; then, with victorious hand, Disdaining little delicacies, seized The Plough, and, greatly independent, scorned All the vile stores corruption can bestow."

"The blue distance, the mysterious Heavens, the example of birds and insects flying everywhere —are always beckoning Humanity to rise into the air."

"Everything is important. To the smallest insect, even the mouldering tree, the deepest stone in the drift that made you cry."

"It seems that scientists are often attracted to beautiful theories in the way that insects are attracted to flowers — not by logical deduction, but by something like a sense of smell."

"No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity; and the sense of being of importance among the insignificant was enough to restore to Miss Bart the gratifying consciousness of power."

"It's estimated that by 2050 the world will be home to nine billion people, meaning current food production will need to almost double. As the population grows, there's been a real push to look at sources of food - particularly protein - other than your traditional meat and fish. Eating insects is said to be one way of meeting this challenge because they are environmentally sustainable, nutritious and can be harvested relatively cheaply and easily in the right conditions."

"Insects and crustaceans diverged from each other 400 million years ago, so the researchers think their death mix represents a universal, ancient warning signal. "Recognizing and avoiding the dead could reduce the chances of catching the disease," Rollo said in the release, "or allow you to get away with just enough exposure to activate your immunity.""

"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it."

"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum. And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on; While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."

"I cannot raise my worth too high; Of what vast consequence am I!" "Not of the importance you suppose," Replies a Flea upon his nose; "Be humble, learn thyself to scan; Know, pride was never made for man."

"A blockhead, bit by fleas, put out the light, And chuckling cried, "Now you can't see to bite.""

"It was many and many a year ago, In a District styled E. C., That a monster dwelt whom I came to know By the name of Cannibal Flea, And the brute was possessed with no other thought Than to live — and to live on me."

"I do honour the very flea of his dog."

"Then mimick'd my voice with satyrical sneer, And sent me away with a Flea in my ear."

"Panurge auoyt la pulee en l'oreille."

"So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum. Thus every poet in his kind Is bit by him that comes behind."

"Men, like bees, want room. When the hive is overflowing, the bees will swarm, and will be likely to take up their abode where they find the best prospect for honey. In matters of this sort, men are very much like bees."

"s are among the few species of bee to live together as a colony—even s, who are social in summer, reduce down to a single queen in winter. They work to produce as much honey as they can while flowers are blooming, so as to sustain themselves through the cold season."

"I began following Grandpa everywhere, climbing into his in the mornings and going to work with him. Thus began my education in the of , where I learned that a beehive revolved around one principle—the family. Grandpa taught me the hidden language of bees, how to interpret their movements and sounds, and to recognize the different scents they release to communicate with hive mates. His stories about the Shakespearean plots to overthrow the queen and its hierarchy of job positions swept me away to a secret realm when my own became too difficult."

"Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant."

"Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt."

"Forget not bees in winter, though they sleep."

"Nature’s confectioner, the bee, (Whose suckets are moist alchemy, The still of his refining mold Minting the garden into gold,) Having rifled all the fields Of what dainty Flora yields, Ambitious now to take exercise Of a more fragrant paradise, At my Fuscara’s sleeve arrived Where all delicious sweets are hived."

"The honey-bee that wanders all day long The field, the woodland, and the garden o'er, To gather in his fragrant winter store, Humming in calm content his winter song, Seeks not alone the rose's glowing breast, The lily's dainty cup, the violet's lips, But from all rank and noxious weeds he sips The single drop of sweetness closely pressed Within the poison chalice."

"The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy."

"His labor is a chant, His idleness a tune; Oh, for a bee's experience Of clovers and of noon!"

"Burly, dozing humblebee, Where thou art is clime for me. Let them sail for Porto Rique, Far-off heats through seas to seek. I will follow thee alone, Thou animated torrid-zone!"

"Seeing only what is fair, Sipping only what is sweet, ** * Leave the chaff, and take the wheat."

"The careful insect 'midst his works I view, Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew, With golden treasures load his little thighs, And steer his distant journey through the skies."

"Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise Their Master's flower, but leave it having done, As fair as ever and as fit to use; So both the flower doth stay and honey run."

"For pitty, Sir, find out that Bee Which bore my Love away I'le seek him in your Bonnet brave, He seek him in your eyes."

"O bees, sweet bees!" I said; "that nearest field Is shining white with fragrant immortelles. Fly swiftly there and drain those honey wells."

"Listen! O, listen! Here ever hum the golden bees Underneath full-blossoined trees, At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned."

"As busie as a Bee."

"The bee is enclosed, and shines preserved, in a tear of the sisters of Phaeton, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a worthy reward for its great toils; we may suppose that the bee itself would have desired such a death."

"In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?"

"For so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts, Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, Others like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summers velvet buds, Which pillage they with merry march bring home."

"The solitary Bee Whose buzzing was the only sound of life, Flew there on restless wing, Seeking in vain one blossom where to fix."

"The little bee returns with evening's gloom, To join her comrades in the braided hive, Where, housed beside their mighty honey-comb, They dream their polity shall long survive."

"How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower."

"The wild Bee reels from bough to bough With his furry coat and his gauzy wing, Now in a lily cup, and now Setting a jacinth bell a-swing, In his wandering."

"If you wish you can tell about the locust (as well). Allah gave it two red eves, lighted for them two moon -- like pupils, made for it small ears, opened for it a suitable mouth and gave it keen sense, gave it two teeth to cut with and two sickle-like feet to grip with. The Farmers are afraid of it in the matter of crops since they cannot drive it away even though they may join together. The locust attacks the fields and satisfies its desires (of hunger) from them although its body is not equal to a thin finger."

"Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour."

"Fry: It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long, the grasshopper kept burying acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched TV. But then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus ate all his acorns. Also he got a race car. Is any of this getting through to you?"

"Twere better far That gods should quaff their nectar merrily, And men sing out the day like grasshoppers, So may they haply lull the watchful thunder."

"Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice — A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice."

"Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning's gentle wine! Nature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; 'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread, Nature's self's thy Ganymede."

"Green little vaulter, in the sunny grass, Catching your heart up at the feel of June, Sole noise that's heard amidst the lazy noon, When ev"n the bees lag at the summoning brass."

"When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the grasshopper's — he takes the lead In summer luxury — he has never done With his delights, for when tired out with fun, He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed."

"I learn more from the anatomy of an ant or a blade of grass...than from all the books which have been written since the beginning of time. This is so, since I have begun...to read the book of God...the model according to which I correct the human books which have been copied badly and arbitrarily and without attention to the things that are written in the original book of the Universe."

"If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics?"

"None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing."

"That swarm of ants that I observed, each one following the one ahead, have every one been Indra in the world of the gods by virtue of their own past action. And now, by virtue of their deeds done in the past, they have gradually fallen to the state of ants."

"The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world."

"It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?"

"It was not until the ant and Veig had passed each other that Niall realized that he had been reading the ant's mind. It was a sensation like actually being the ant, as if he had momentarily taken possession of its body. And while he had been inside the ant's body, he had also become aware of all the other ants in the nest. It was a bewildering feeling, as if his mind had shattered into thousands of fragments, yet each fragment remained a coherent part of the whole."

"Ants never sleep."

"Parvula (nam exemplo est) magni formica laboris Ore trahit, quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo Quem struit; haud ignara ac non incauta futuri."

"While an ant was wandering under the shade of the tree of Phæton, a drop of amber enveloped the tiny insect; thus she, who in life was disregarded, became precious by death."

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

"An inordinate fondness for beetles."

"O'er folded blooms On swirls of musk, The beetle booms adown the glooms And bumps along the dusk."

"And often, to our comfort, shall we find The sharded beetle in a safer hold Than is the full-winged eagle."

"And the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies."

"He looked out sentimentally at his friends: the ethereal castanets of the butterflies."

"Some butterflies, notably the , and feed on and can be found on damaged areas of tree trunks. They are also attracted to the smell of dung and manure."

"I'd be a butterfly, born in a bower, Where roses and lilies and violets meet."

"But these are flowers that fly and all but sing."

"The butterfly's floating magnificence crosses Our lawn for a moment, then flutters beyond."

"Butterflies … not quite birds as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures."

"Diaphanous, roseate, Floating before us Butterflies … butterflies — Vibrations of the great Unknown."

"Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things."

"Gray sail against the sky, Gray butterfly! Have you a dream for going Or are you only the blind wind's blowing?"

"With the rose the butterfly's deep in love, A thousand times hovering round; But round himself, all tender like gold, The sun's sweet ray is hovering found."

"Far out at sea,—the sun was high, While veer'd the wind and flapped the sail, We saw a snow-white butterfly Dancing before the fitful gale, Far out at sea."

"The gold-barr'd butterflies to and fro And over the waterside wander'd and wove As heedless and idle as clouds that rove And drift by the peaks of perpetual snow."

"And many an ante-natal tomb Where butterflies dream of the life to come."

"Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee: Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart."

"I am perfectly willing to share the room with a fly, as long as he is patrolling that portion of the room I don't occupy. But if he starts that smart-ass fly shit, buzzing my head and repeatedly landing on my arm, he is engaging in high-risk behavior."

"He is an extraordinary animal is the house fly. Go where you will you find him, and so it must have been always. I have seen him enclosed in amber, which is, I was told, quite half a million years old, looking exactly like his descendant of to-day, and I have little doubt but that when the last man lies dying on the earth he will be buzzing round – if this event should happen to occur in summer – watching for an opportunity to settle on his nose."

"God in His wisdom made the fly And then forgot to tell us why."

"Everything was giant-sized, as if I were looking through binoculars. "I" was walking up giant stalks. At first I didn't know what they were or what I was, for that matter. The stalks were tall as redwood trees, and suddenly "I" realized that I was an insect of some kind. This was a grass blade. I thought I was a fly in a gigantic forest -- a giant fly, because everything was so large and super-real, and I;m used to thinking of flies as small. But I was an ordinary fly. I realized, and this was what the world looked like! Oddly enough, this made me feel better, I didn't care what I was; as long as I was something. So I felt myself go up the grass blade. It's impossible to verbalize the sensations I had, but I remember being aware of the weight of my wings. They seemed very sturdy and reassuring."

"King James said to the fly, "Have I three kingdoms, and thou must needs fly into my eye?""

"Flies enter an open mouth."

"Oh! that the memories, which survive us here, Were half so lovely as these wings of thine! Pure relics of a blameless life, that shine Now thou art gone."

"We see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb."

"It was prettily devised of Æsop: The fly sat upon the axle-tree of the chariot-wheel, and said, What a dust do I raise!"

"We see how flies, and spiders, and the like, get a sepulchre in amber, more durable than the monument and embalming of the body of any king."

"Haceos miel, y paparos han moscas."

"The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets."

"To a boiling pot flies come not."

"I saw a flie within a beade Of amber cleanly buried."

"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt."

"A fly sat on the chariot wheel And said "what a dust I raise.""

"Busy, curious, thirsty fly, Drink with me and drink as I! Freely welcome to my cup, Could'st thou sip and sip it up; Make the most of life you may; Life is short and wears away."

"Baby bye Here's a fly, Let us watch him. you and I, How he crawls Up the walls Yet he never falls."

"Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, The shooting stars attend thee; And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee."

"Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer. Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer. Lead us lest too far we wander. Love's sweet voice is calling yonder."

"Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But look'd too near have neither heat nor light."

"For, as you know, religions are like glow-worms; they shine only when it is dark."

"Till glowworms light owl-watchmen's flight Through our green metropolis."

"My star, God's glowworm."

"Tasteful illumination of the night, Bright scattered, twinkling star of spangled earth."

"While many a glowworm in the shade Lights up her love torch."

"Glow-worms on the ground are moving, As if in the torch-dance circling."

"Ye living lamps, by whose dear light The nightingale does sit so late; And studying all the summer night, Her matchless songs does meditate."

"Ye country comets, that portend No war nor princes' funeral Shining unto no other end Than to presage the grass's fall."

"Here's a health to the glow-worm, Death's sober lamplighter."

"When evening closes Nature's eye, The glow-worm lights her little spark To captivate her favorite fly And tempt the rover through the dark."

"The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."

"Like a glowworm golden, in a dell of dew, Scattering unbeholden its aërial blue Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view."

"Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge, The glow-worm lights his gem; and through the dark, A moving radiance twinkles."

"Don't mistake vivacity for wit, thare iz about az much difference az thare iz between lightning and a lightning bug."

"To a child's eye a lightning-bug outshines the brightest fixed star. There is no little childishness in every generation of grown-up people. The Lightning-bug never sees a second summer, the star shines on forever."

"The dark is wide and long, The gates are closed, the crowd's all gone, You're still shimmering and leading me on…Firefly that's what you are Burning for me in my darkest hour "Light breaks where no sun shines" So shine for me tonight — firefly."

"Before, beside us, and above The firefly lights his lamp of love."

"Every Lightning-bug has his night, but he never has had his day."

"And the fireflies, Wah-wah-taysee, Waved their torches to mislead him."

"Now, motionless and dark, eluded search Self-shrouded: and anon, starring the sky, Rose like a shower of fire."

"Many a night I saw the Pleiads rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid."

"The lightning bug is brilliant But he hasn't any mind He blunders through existence With his headlight on behind."

"Is it where the flow'r of the orange blows, And the fireflies dance thro' the myrtle boughs?"

"The fireflies o'er the meadow In pulses come and go."

"Tiny Salmoneus of the air His mimic bolts the firefly threw."

"The blood of slaughtered bullocks oft has borne Bees from corruption. I will trace me back To its prime source the story's tangled thread, And thence unravel. For where thy happy folk, Canopus, city of Pellaean fame, Dwell by the Nile's lagoon-like overflow, And high o'er furrows they have called their own Skim in their painted wherries; where, hard by, The quivered Persian presses, and that flood Which from the swart-skinned Aethiop bears him down, Swift-parted into sevenfold branching mouths With black mud fattens and makes Aegypt green, That whole domain its welfare's hope secure Rests on this art alone. And first is chosen A strait recess, cramped closer to this end, Which next with narrow roof of tiles atop 'Twixt prisoning walls they pinch, and add hereto From the four winds four slanting window-slits. Then seek they from the herd a steer, whose horns With two years' growth are curling, and stop fast, Plunge madly as he may, the panting mouth And nostrils twain, and done with blows to death, Batter his flesh to pulp i' the hide yet whole, And shut the doors, and leave him there to lie. But 'neath his ribs they scatter broken boughs, With thyme and fresh-pulled cassias: this is done When first the west winds bid the waters flow, Ere flush the meadows with new tints, and ere The twittering swallow buildeth from the beams. Meanwhile the juice within his softened bones Heats and ferments, and things of wondrous birth, Footless at first, anon with feet and wings, Swarm there and buzz, a marvel to behold; And more and more the fleeting breeze they take, Till, like a shower that pours from summer-clouds, Forth burst they, or like shafts from quivering string When Parthia's flying hosts provoke the fray. … The appointed altars reared, and thither led Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk, With kine to match, that never yoke had known; Then, when the ninth dawn had led in the day, To Orpheus sent his funeral dues, and sought The grove once more. But sudden, strange to tell A portent they espy: through the oxen's flesh, Waxed soft in dissolution, hark! there hum Bees from the belly; the rent ribs overboil In endless clouds they spread them, till at last On yon tree-top together fused they cling, And drop their cluster from the bending boughs."

"He said: ‘Do you ask how to recover your bees? Kill a heifer and bury its carcase in the earth, Buried it will produce what you ask of me.’ The shepherd obeyed: the beast’s putrid corpse Swarmed: one life destroyed created thousands."

"However if trust is only placed in proven things, do you not see that whenever corpses putrefy, due to time or melting heat, they generate tiny creatures? Bury the carcases of sacrificed bulls (it is a known experiment) in the ditch where you have thrown them, and flower-sipping bees, will be born, here and there, from the putrid entrails. After the custom of their parent bodies, they frequent the fields, are devoted o work, and labour in hope of harvest. A war-horse dug into the earth is the source of hornets."

"These persons say also, that if the swarm is entirely lost, it may be replaced by the aid of the belly1 of an ox newly killed, covered over with dung. Virgil also says2 that this may be done with the body of a young bull, in the same way that the carcase of the horse produces wasps and hornets, and that of the ass beetles, Nature herself effecting these changes of one substance into another. But in all these last, sexual intercourse is to be perceived as well, though the characteristics of the offspring are pretty much the same as those of the bee."

"1 Though Virgil tells the same story, in B. iv. of the Georgics, in relation to the shepherd Aristæus, all this is entirely fabulous."

"2 Georg. B. iv. 1. 284, et seq."

"In winter, too, the hives should be covered with straw, and subjected to repeated fumigations, with burnt cow- dung more particularly. As this is of kindred origin* with the bees, the smoke produced by it is particularly beneficial in killing all such insects as may happen to breed there, such as spiders, for instance, moths, and wood-worms; while, at the same time, it stimulates the bees themselves to increased activity."

""Cognatum hoc." He probably alludes to the notion entertained by the ancients that bees might be reproduced from the putrefied entrails of an ox, as wasps from those of a horse. See the story of Aristæus in B. iv. of Virgil's Georgics."

"In regard to the difference in origin, some animals originate without mixture of the sexes, while others originate through sexual intercourse. Of 41 those which originate without intercourse of the sexes, some come from fire, as the little animals which appear in the chimneys, others from stagnant water, as mosquitoes, others from fermented wine, as the stinging ants, others from the earth, others from the mud, like the frogs, others from slime, as the worms, others from donkeys, as the beetles, others from cabbage, as caterpillars, others from fruit, as the gall insect from the wild figs, others from putrefied1 animals, as bees from bulls, and wasps from horses."

"8. The priestesses of Ceres, also, as being initiated into the mysteries of the terrene Goddess, were called by the ancients bees; and Proserpine herself was denominated by them honied. The moon, likewise, who presides over generation, was called by them a bee, and also a bull. And Taurus is the exaltation of the moon. But bees are ox-begotten. And this application is also given to souls proceeding into generation. The God, likewise, who is occultly connected with generation, is a stealer of oxen. To which may be added, that honey is considered as a symbol of death, and on this account it is usual to offer libations of honey to the terrestrial Gods; but gall is considered as a symbol of life; whether it is obscurely signified by this, that the life of the soul dies through pleasure, but through bitterness the soul resumes its life, whence, also, bile is sacrificed to the Gods; or whether it is, because death liberates from molestation, but the present life is laborious and bitter. All souls, however, proceeding into generation, are not simply called bees, but those who will live in it justly and who, after having performed such things as are acceptable to the Gods, will again return (to their kindred stars). For this insect loves to return to the place from whence it first came, and is eminently just and sober. Whence, also, the libations which are made with honey are called sober. Bees, likewise, do not sit on beans, which were considered by the ancients as a symbol of generation proceeding in a right line, and without flexure; because this leguminous vegetable is almost the only seed-bearing plant whose stalk is perforated throughout without any intervening knots (note 11). We must therefore admit, that honeycombs and bees are appropriate and common symbols of the aquatic nymphs, and of souls that are married (as it were) to (the humid and fluctuating nature of) generation."

"Moreover, it also ordains that every sacrifice shall be offered up without any leaven or honey, not thinking it fit that either of these things should be brought to the altar. The honey, perhaps, because the bee which collects it is not a clean animal, inasmuch as it derives its birth, as the story goes, from the putrefaction and corruption of dead oxen, {41}{this refers to the same idea so beautifully expressed by Virgil, Georgics 4.548 (as it is translated by Dryden)--"His mother's precepts he performs with care; / The temple visits and adores with prayer; / Four altars raises; from his herd he culls, / For slaughter, four the fairest of his bulls; / Four heifers from his female store he took, / All fair and all unknowing of the yoke, / Nine mornings thence with sacrifice and prayers, / The powers atoned, he to the grove repairs. / Behold a prodigy! for from within / The broken vowels and the bloated skin, / A buzzing noise of bees his ears alarms: / Straight issue through the sides assembling swarms, / Dark as a cloud they make a wheeling flight, / Then on a neighbouring tree, descending light: / Like a large cluster of black grapes they show, / And make a large dependence from the bough."} just as wasps spring from the bodies of horses."

"Philo, The Special Laws."

"CHAP. LIX. For it would, indeed, be absurd that certain stones and buildings should be regarded as more sacred or more profane than others, according as they were constructed for the honour of God, or for the reception of dishonourable and accursed persons; while bodies should not differ from bodies, according as they are inhabited by rational or irrational beings, and according as these rational beings are the most virtuous or most worthless of mankind. Such a principle of distinction, indeed, has led some to deify the bodies of distinguished men, as having received a virtuous soul, and to reject and treat with dishonour those of very wicked individuals. I do not maintain that such a principle has been always soundly exercised, but that it had its origin in a correct idea. Would a wise man, indeed, after the death of Anytus and Socrates, think of burying the bodies of both with like honours? And would he raise the same mound or tomb to the memory of both? These instances we have adduced because of the language of Celsus, that "none of these is the work of God" (where the words "of these" refer to the body of a man or to the snakes which come out of the body and to that of an ox, or of the bees which come from the body of an ox; and to that of a horse or of an ass, and to the wasps which come from a horse, and the beetles which proceed from an ass); for which reason we have been obliged to return to the consideration of his statement, that "the soul is the work of God, but that the nature of body is different.""

"14:1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 14:2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. 14:3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. 14:5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. 14:6 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. 14:7 And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. 14:8 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. 14:9 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. 14:10 So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. 14:11 And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. 14:12 And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments: 14:13 But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. 14:14 And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle. 14:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so? 14:16 And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee? 14:17 And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 14:18 And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? and he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. 14:19 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. 14:20 But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend."

"The bee doth leave her comb, in the dead carrion."

"A horse's carcase is the breeding place of Wasps. For ass the carcase rots, these creatures fly out of the marrow: the swiftest of animals begets winged offspring: the horse, Wasps."

"Oxen are after all the most serviceable creatures. At sharing the farmer's labours, at carrying loads of various kinds, at filling the milk-pail - at all these things the Ox is excellent. He graces the altars, gladdens festivals, and provides a solemn banquet. and even when dead the Ox is a splendid creature deserving our praise. At any rate bees are begotten of this carcase - bees, the most industrious of creatures, which afford the best and sweetest of fruits that man has, namely honey."

"What, again, of your not abstaining yourselves from the slaughter of lice, bugs, and fleas? You think it a sufficient excuse for this to say that these are the dirt of our bodies. But this is clearly untrue of fleas and bugs; for every one knows that these animals do not come from our bodies. Besides, if you abhor sexual intercourse as much as you pretend to do, you should think those animals all the cleaner which come from our bodies without any other generation; for although they produce offspring of their own, they are not produced in ordinary generation from us. Again, if we must consider as most filthy the production of living bodies, still worse must be the production of dead bodies. There must be less harm, therefore, in killing a rat, a snake, or a scorpion, which you constantly say come from our dead bodies. But to pass over what is less plain and certain, it is a common opinion regarding bees that they come from the carcases of oxen; so there is no harm in killing them. Or if this too is doubted, every one allows that beetles, at least, are bred in the ball of mud which they make and bury. You ought therefore to consider these animals, and others that it would be tedious to specify, more unclean than your lice; and yet you think it sinful to kill them, though it would be foolish not to kill the lice. Perhaps you hold the lice cheap because they are small. But if an animal is to be valued by its size, you must prefer a camel to a man."

"In the "new birth" of the mysteries, the Souls were typified as bees born from the body of an ox, for they were to gather the honey of wisdom, and were born from the now dead body of their lower natures. In the cave were two doors, one for immortals, the other for mortals. In this connection the cave is the psychic womb that surrounds every man, of which Nicodemus displays such ignorance in the Gospels. It is the microcosmic Middle Distance; by one door the Lower Soul enters, and uniting with its immortal consort, who descends through the door of the immortals, becomes immortal."

"Silk and Lace Stronger than an evening fire My heart yearns with desire To build with you a burning pyre That rivals the beauty of angelic choir In you I see both beauty and grace Each time I gaze upon your brilliant face For you are Beauty draped in silk and lace And in your eyes my heart has found its place To speak with you is like Autumn wind The world is kind when you and I see the day begin Together embraced in silk and lace a passion that knows no end Though we are not lovers loving under covers I am glad to know you as a friend."

"She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. It looks as if she did not neglect herself. The coverings mentioned are for her bed. She took time to decorate and adorn her bedroom with beautiful bedspread, pillows etc. her clothing is attractive and made of silk. Silk was one of the finest linens from Egypt."

"HANDKERCHIEF, n. A small square of silk or linen, used in various ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals to conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recent invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and entrusted its duties to the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of "Othello" is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt, as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails in our own day --an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward."

"It's funny how worms can turn leaves into silk. But funnier far is the cow: She changes a field of green grass into milk And not a professor knows how."

"The Spirit of the Gift It is not the weight of jewel or plate, Or the fondle of silk or fur; 'Tis the spirit in which the gift is rich, As the gifts of the Wise Ones were, And we are not told whose gift was gold, Or whose was the gift of myrrh."

"BLACK SILK DRESS Her black silk dress Fitted her like a sheath The taut lines showed Her nakedness beneath Save for black-stockings Gartered at the thigh Stimulating to the loins And pleasing to the eye She turned every head With her glamorous allure Filled each one with thoughts None of which were pure"

"According to an ancient Chinese legend, one day in the year 240 BC, Princess Si Ling-chi was sitting under a mulberry tree when a silkworm cocoon fell into her teacup. When she tried to remove it, she noticed that the cocoon had begun to unravel in the hot liquid. She handed the loose end to her maidservant and told her to walk. The servant went out of the princess's chamber, and into the palace courtyard, and through the palace gates, and out of the Forbidden City, and into the countryside a half mile away before the cocoon ran out. (In the West, this legend would slowly mutate over three millennia, until it became the story of a physicist and an [[apple. Either way, the meanings are the same: great discoveries, whether of silk or of gravity, are always windfalls. They happen to people loafing under trees."

"They don't farm silk in America. They wear clothes, don't they? Or do they go around naked? If they wear clothes, they need silk. And they can buy it from me. “Okay, whatever you want. Just hurry.”"

"My family might never have become silk farmers if it hadn't been for the Emperor Justinian, who, according to Procopius, persuaded two missionaries to risk it. In 550 AD, the missionaries snuck silkworm eggs out of China in the swallowed condom of the time: a hollow staff. They also brought the seeds of the mulberry tree. As a result, Byzantium became a center of sericulture. Mulberry trees flourished on Turkish hill sides. Silkworms are the leaves, Fourteen hundred years later, the descendants of those stolen eggs filled my grandmother’s silkworm box in Guilin."

"Orthodox monks smuggled silk out of China in the sixth century. They brought it to Asia Minor. From there it spread to Europe, and finally traveled across the sea to North America. Benjamin Franklin fostered the silk industry in Pennsylvania before the American Revolution. Mulberry trees were planted all over the United States."

"The most widely raised type of silkworm, the larva of Bombyx mori, no longer exists anywhere in a natural state. The legs of the larve have degenerated, and the adults do not fly."

"A Silk Rose I run my hands down your silk shoulders till our hands are in each others. As our bodies lightly touch, these lips can only kiss. I whisper softly my only words, I love you always"

"Your thought advocates fame and show. Mine counsels me and implores me to cast aside notoriety and treat it like a grain of sand cast upon the shore of eternity. Your thought instills in your heart arrogance and superiority. Mine plants within me love for peace and the desire for independence. Your thought begets dreams of palaces with furniture of sandalwood studded with jewels, and beds made of twisted silk threads. My thought speaks softly in my ears, "Be clean in body and spirit even if you have nowhere to lay your head." Your thought makes you aspire to titles and offices. Mine exhorts me to humble service."

"Narrated Hudhaifa: The Prophet said, "Do not drink in gold or silver utensils, and do not wear clothes of silk or Dibaj, for these things are for them (unbelievers) in this world and for you in the Hereafter.""

"Narrated 'Abdullah bin Umar: Umar bought a silk cloak from the market, took it to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Take it and adorn yourself with it during the 'Id and when the delegations visit you." Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) replied, "This dress is for those who have no share (in the Hereafter)." After a long period Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) sent to Umar a cloak of silk brocade. Umar came to Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) with the cloak and said, "O Allah's Apostle! You said that this dress was for those who had no share (in the Hereafter); yet you have sent me this cloak." Allah's Apostle said to him, "Sell it and fulfill your needs by it.""

"Narrated 'Ali: The Prophet gave me a silken dress as a gift and I wore it. When I saw the signs of anger on his face, I cut it into pieces and distributed it among my wives.""

"Narrated Anas: A Jubba (i.e. cloak) made of thick silken cloth was presented to the Prophet. The Prophet used to forbid people to wear silk. So, the people were pleased to see it. The Prophet said, "By Him in Whose Hands Muhammad's soul is, the handkerchiefs of Sad bin Mu'adh in Paradise are better than this." Anas added, "The present was sent to the Prophet by Ukaidir (a Christian) from Dauma.""

"Narrated Abu 'Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash'ari: that he heard the Prophet saying, "From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful. And there will be some people who will stay near the side of a mountain and in the evening their shepherd will come to them with their sheep and ask them for something, but they will say to him, 'Return to us tomorrow.' Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection.""

"For me, each day begins and ends with wanting to learn a little more about the secrets of spider silk. Spiders have been around for over 300 million years and are found in nearly every terrestrial environment. There are more than 40,000 species living today and each spins at least one type of silk. However, most spiders spin more than one type of silk. For example, the orb-web weaving spiders that are commonly seen in gardens during the day or near porch lights at night, typically make seven kinds of silk. Each silk is chemically and functionally distinctive."

"An individual spider can produce multiple varieties of silk because it has numerous silk glands inside its body. Some silk glands make one type of silk, another set of silk glands makes a second type of silk, and so forth. One of the unforgettable moments in my life was the first time I dissected a spider and saw its stunningly beautiful, translucent silk glands."

"What's the difference between spider silk and silkworm silk, the kind of silk in a typical silk scarf or blouse. Silk used in textiles is spun from the mouths of caterpillars to form cocoons that protect them while they transform into moths. A silkworm has only one pair of silk glands and can make one type of w:Fiber}fiber."

"Spiders, in contrast, have many silk glands, and the silk emerges from spinnerets located towards the rear of their bodies. Spiders are also able to spin silk from when they are very young and continue to do so throughout their lives."

"Researchers are drawing inspiration from spider silks to produce novel, protein-based, eco-friendly materials for use in medical, cosmetic, electronic, textile, industrial, and other applications. The potential is enormous, especially considering the mind-boggling diversity of spiders and their silks."

"Golden silk with deep red tie Folded in golden silk with deep red tie of the same tucked inside a bedside drawer this is for what she came... holding to her heart these now opened letters with tear stains she has no shame the i love yous wrapped in golden silk with deep red tie of the same."

"So now our dear old Santa, he's a picture of health. Now that he's so much thinner, he moves with greater stealth. Please don't leave him cookies, forget about the milk. Perhaps some sexy boxers, Mrs. Claus prefers them silk."

"The eighteenth century was "The Age of Silk”. It was the fabric of power and class command. Gainsborough painted not people so much as displays of silken extravagance."

"The lace man might then sell or put out the purl to the silver-thread-spinner, who, by intertwining purl and silk, made an embroiderer's thread called 'sleysy'. The lace man's shop had equipment consisting of wheels and spindles much like those at a rope-walk."

"I have been much amused at ye singular φενόμενα [phenomena] resulting from bringing of a needle into contact with a piece of amber or resin fricated on silke clothe. Ye flame putteth me in mind of sheet lightning on a small—how very small—scale."

"I looked at the inchworm dangling from the silk in my hand and said: "Think how nature makes things compared to how we humans make things." We talked about how animals don't just preserve the next generation; they typically preserve the environment for the ten-thousandth generation. While human industrial processes can produce Kevlar, it takes a temperature of thousands of degrees to do it, and the fiber is pulled through sulfuric acid. In contrast, a spider makes its silk - which per gram is several times stronger than steel - at room temperature in water."

"...touched the silk thread which the caterpillar makes benignly from the protein fibroin...think of its metamorphosis in its cocoon, a churning of natural juices, enzymes – and out comes a butterfly. Where are the toxics in that?"

"We are all Adam's children, but silk makes the difference."

"“Do not wear silk, for one who wears it in the world will not wear it in the Hereafter” (5150)."

"Queen Elizabeth [the First] owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls in return for steadily decreasing amount of efforts."

"Well, we realised that we have to move with the times, adapt to change. Also, this is a way of capturing a larger segment of the market. The new designs will mean more takers among the younger age groups, who look for trendy designs, and new looks. The older age group will now have something different-looking to add to their existing classic-design collection. …All these innovations are being done without in any way tampering with the purity and uncompromising quality that has characterised Mysore silk fabrics - including saris — for decades.... Although we are giving the body of the sari an element of interest with these innovations, we are seeing to it that it doesn't kill the inherent beauty of the fabric."

"This is one element [kasuti-embroidery fusion] I always missed in a Mysore silk saree. So, I had to go for Kancheepuram, Peddapuram [saris] or Banaras when I needed to wear a very heavy-looking sari. Now, I have bought one and even gifted another to my sister-in-law as part of her wedding trousseau."

"China has been famous for its silk for thousands of years. The main trade route linking China to the West was even known as the Silk Road. The ancient Romans prized Chinese silk and imported both thread and cloth. The Chinese kept their methods of silk production a closely held secret, and so Westerners were unable to make their own. Knowledge of silk making gradually spread west after two Persian monks smuggled some silk worm eggs out of China in the 6th century C.E. However, China remained the world’s key producer."

"Silk. production. The ancient Chinese method of silk making, or sericulture, involved hatching many silk moth eggs at the same time. The caterpillars were then kept on bamboo trays and fed hand-picked mulberry leaves. Some cocoons were allowed to develop into adult moths so that they could produce more eggs. The rest were dropped into boiling water, which made each cocoon unwind to produce a single fiber that could be over half mile (nearly a kilometer long)."

"Silk tapestry, or kesi appeared in China during the Tang dynasty around the 7th century C.E. In silk tapestry, both the background fabric and the foreground threads are made of silk. w:Tapestry|Tapestry [[artists favored big, bold designs without repeats."

"Plain silk fabric can be tie-dyed or printed. Artisans use simple printing blocks to create colourful, repeated designs. For more luxurious reults, silks can be hand-painted or embroidered."

"Summer robes were made from light, cool silk. Those for winter wear were quilted — two layers of silk were stitched together, with a thick layer of warm w:Padding|padding in between. Quilting is still a popular technique in modern [[China for creating cozy dresses and jackets."

"The tradition of painting on silk emerged in the 3rd century BC., with painters producing banners and scrolls....Between the 4th and the 10th centuries silk painted concentrated on human figures. They depicted their clothes and movements with graceful brush strokes."

"It [qin] has seven silk or metal strings and a long soundbox, with marks showing the positions of thirteen particular pitches. The qin was a favorite instrument of scholar-poets because its plucked strings create delicate, magical notes."

"China's earliest contact with the rest of the world was via the Silk Road, along which Chinese silks were transported through the Middle East and into Europe. In return, traders brought foreign goods, such as wool, glass beads, silver, and gold into China."

"The history of silk development spans through centuries and can be traced around the world's very ancient trade route called 'Silk Road'. A UNESCO inspired team trekked this obscure yet historical caravan tract called ‘Silk Road’, which began in China, passed through Tashkent, Baghdad, Damascus, Istanbul and reached European shores. Since the beginning of the Christian era (by 126 BC) silk has been the most coolourful of world caravans. Fabulous silks from China and India were carried to Europe through this 6400 km long road."

"It seems sericulture entered Europe during 140-86 BC. India also has long 3000-year history of silk development and at present ranks second to China in multi-varieties of silk production."

"China zealously guarded the secret of silk for about 3,000 years and plied a prosperous silk trade with the rest of the world. The merchant navies and the Chaldees carried fabulous silks from China to the courts of Babylon and Nineveh."

"In India the silk culture dates to antiquity. According to historians, mulberry culture spread to India by about 140 BC from China through Khotan."

"Even though mulberry culture may have come to India overland from China, the references in old scriptures definitely point out that India cultivated some kind of wild silks independently of China from the time immemorial. The ancient religious scripture, Rigveda, mentioned ‘urna’, generally translated as some sort of silk."

"Francis I did all he could to encourage and support sericulture and is the first French King to wear pure silk stockings. After Francis l, Both Henry II and Henry III patronized the silk weaving industry but it was Henry IV who introduced silkworm rearing into France."

"The saga of silk success and shortcomings during the twentieth century is just astonishing. For the first 40 years until the nylon hit the market silk trade reached an all-time high demand mainly for the women's stockings."

"... the important factor affecting the growth of global silk trade during 1990s was the imposition of quotas by European Union and the United States on imports of"

"Though silk production is less than 0.2 per cent of the world textile output, its production base is spread over 60 countries in the world with Asian nations bagging lion's share of over 90 per cent of mulberry production and almost 100-percent of non-mulberry silk....India is the world’s second largest producer with unique output of four varieties of silk – mulberry, tasar, eri, and moga."

"Sericulture, silk reeling and weaving have been practiced in the ancient trading capital of Shanghai. Shanghai has several modern silk processing plants and is also serving as captive units of American large buying houses."

"Karnataka, earlier known as Mysore, abound with silk, sandal wood and gold, the three most sought-after natural commodities . Karnataka is now the main mulberry silk producing state in India, contributing about two thirds of the output. Over 1 million families earn their living by cultivating bush mulberry, rearing silkworms and harvesting cocoons five to six times a year. Bangalore is the silk capital of India with the headquarters of CSB and its affiliated research located there."

"Silk processing in EU is concentrated in Milan and Como in Italy, Lyon in France and Zurich in Switzerland; same high quality silk weaving, jacquard, and printing are undertaken in the United Kingdom. Italy and France specialize in designer fabrics and scarves from famous fashion houses."

"Silkworm Rearing, Cocoon Harvesting The silk caterpillar, belong to the Order of Lepidoptera winged insects, genus Bombyx. The species Bombyx mori, which can be cultivated indoors, produces over 90 per cent of the world output of raw silk used commercially. There are other types of wild silkworms under the genus Saturnidae."

"Silk is crystalline, homogeneous in structure, hygroscopic in nature, light in weight, and is the longest and the strongest of all natural fibers. Soft, lustrous, and [[hygienic and also has an excellent affinity to dyes. Silk does not catch fire as easily as nylon and wool."

"Success of silk processing depends on quality of silkcocoons, which form integral part of raw silk production and sericulture...Silk is produced and secreted from the external secreting gland (exocrine gland). It is derived from the ecoderm and appears at about 36 hours prior to the rotation (blaktokinesis)...Silk gland can be distinctly divided into three divisions, anterior, middle and posterior....its composition includes spinneret, anteriror division, middle division, and posterior division."

"spinneret: It is a delicate tube inside the posterior part of the primary stage of silk gland. It comprises three parts, viz. spinning area, thread press and common tube. On the dorsal, lateral and ventral sides of thread press, six sets of musculus fibers develops which makes use of their expansion, contraction, flexibility for regulating the flow of silk substance, coarseness of silk as well as pressure in silk formation."

"The weight of the silk filament is decided by the weight of the cocoon shell and silk percentage of cocoon shell. In the reeling factory, raw silk percentage of cocoons and reeling discount of dried cocoons are used. The weight of the cocoon shell and the uniformity of cocoon are considered important commercial factors in raw silk reeling that are closely related to the raw silk yield to be obtained."

"The neatness and some cleanness of raw silk are directly influenced whereas size deviation, tenacity and cohesion of raw silk are indirectly influenced by the breed characteristics of the cocoons. The degree of neatness of raw silk is determined on the basis of incidence of the occurrence of defects which are smaller than those classified as “minor cleanliness defects”."

"The silk reeled on small reels is soaked in permeation chamber kept at low pressure [vacuum up to 400mm of (Hg) mercury/torr before re-reeling. The emulsion medium is water with non-ionic wetting agent and lubricating oil. The permeation of liquor is effected three times to facilitate easy unwinding of silk from the small reels."

"Before spinning a cocoon, the silk builds a hammock, an anchorage to hold its cocoon. This material is known as floss or blaze (Italian:Shelia, Japanese: Kebab). The quantity is small and the quality is poor, but it can be used for noil spinning."

"From Filament to Fabric Silk seems to have played an important role in the development of loom and weaving technology. Traces of primitive looms and woven fabrics are found in excavations in Egypt, China, India and Peru (2500 to 400 BC)...The silk weavers of China innovated the use of heddle and draw loom, a revolutionary development over the primitive tribal loom. India invented a foot tradle for silk weaving, a technical innovation over the ancient loom."

"Raw silk: The silk thread produced by the reeling together of the baves of several cocoons. Raw silk has no twist. Poil: A silk yarn formed by twisting raw silk. The twist may be very slight or exceed 3,000 per meter. Tram: A silk yarn formed by doubling two or more raw silk threads and then twisting them slightly, generally 80 to 150 TPM. Crepe: Silk yarn made by several raw silk threads and twisting them to very high levels in the range of 2000 to 4000 TPM."

"Silk can be woven into all the three basic weaves: plain or tabby twills and [[w:Satin|satin]s. Tabby silk weave produces, among others, taffeta and poplin. Tapestry weaves in silk have been used to weave ceremonial and decorative dresses and tapestries."

"Fabrics are degummed and bleached, if they are woven with yellow raw silk. Silk fabrics like other fabrics (cotton, manmade, wool and others) can broadly divided into mechanical and chemical finishing. The objective of mechanical finishing is to impart or improve certain desirable qualities like drape, fall or handle, feel stiffness, weight etc; but most of the mechanical finishes are only temporary."

"Silk sateen: The sateen is usually woven with degummed silk yarn but sometimes there are also fabrics woven with raw silk, which are degummed after weaving. The former is called glossed silk sateen and the latter is silk sateen."

"Although the bulk of world raw silk supply is spun by the domesticated silk moth, Bombyx mori, there are other sericigenous insects which spin cocoons and their yarn is equally pure silk. There silks are known as wild silk as differentiated from cultivated ‘mulberry silk’. The wild silk moths are abundantly found in remote regions, hilltops and forest interiors in [Burma, China, India, Korea, equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia. In fact, according to one authority, there are between four to five hundred different types of wild moths spinning silk cocoons; but only a few of these moths have commercial values."

"World Raw silk Trading: Raw silk is an important international trade commodity traded at the main commodity markets of New York, Lyon and London. Japan used to dominate the world silk market with her leading position as the top exporter, followed by China and Korea. Since 1869s China has taken over the market and Japan has reversed her role, emerging as a leading importer of raw silk"

"The USA, which used to be the biggest single importer of raw silk until the 1960s has now grown into a leading importer of finished silk cloth by reducing the import of raw silk and waste silk. With the rising weaving costs, the USA prefers to import finished fabric to raw silk."

"I know that stepping on a crack won't break my parents' bones. However, there is a chance that bugs can suffer, and that their suffering is of immense proportion. We live in either World 1 or World 2. In the coming years, decades, and centuries, we will discover which of these worlds we inhabit. Let's make sure that if (or when) we realize we live in World 2, we are satisfied that we have a plan in place and are able to do all we can to improve the lives of bugs."

"To let go from my hand a flea that I have caught is a kinder act than to bestow a dirhem on a man in need. There is no difference between the black earless creature which I release and the Black Prince of Kinda who bound the tiara (on his head). Both of them take precaution (against death); and life is dear to it (the flea), and it passionately desires the means of living."

"Among insects, most of the pieces of the evidence required to say that insects feel pain appear in some groups to some extent. However, they do not appear in all groups to the extent which would result in a definitive answer. It would not surprise me to learn that some insects, particularly some of the social insects, would posses [sic] all the pieces of evidence."

"During the rest of that day there was no other adventure to mar the peace of their journey. Once, indeed, the Tin Woodman stepped upon a beetle that was crawling along the road, and killed the poor little thing. This made the Tin Woodman very unhappy, for he was always careful not to hurt any living creature; and as he walked along he wept several tears of sorrow and regret. These tears ran slowly down his face and over the hinges of his jaw, and there they rusted. When Dorothy presently asked him a question the Tin Woodman could not open his mouth, for his jaws were tightly rusted together. He became greatly frightened at this and made many motions to Dorothy to relieve him, but she could not understand. The Lion was also puzzled to know what was wrong. But the Scarecrow seized the oil-can from Dorothy's basket and oiled the Woodman's jaws, so that after a few moments he could talk as well as before."This will serve me a lesson," said he, "to look where I step. For if I should kill another bug or beetle I should surely cry again, and crying rusts my jaws so that I cannot speak."Thereafter he walked very carefully, with his eyes on the road, and when he saw a tiny ant toiling by he would step over it, so as not to harm it. The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything."

"[W]e propose that at least one invertebrate clade, the insects, has a capacity for the most basic aspect of consciousness: subjective experience. In vertebrates the capacity for subjective experience is supported by integrated structures in the midbrain that create a neural simulation of the state of the mobile animal in space. This integrated and egocentric representation of the world from the animal's perspective is sufficient for subjective experience. Structures in the insect brain perform analogous functions. Therefore, we argue the insect brain also supports a capacity for subjective experience. In both vertebrates and insects this form of behavioral control system evolved as an efficient solution to basic problems of sensory reafference and true navigation. The brain structures that support subjective experience in vertebrates and insects are very different from each other, but in both cases they are basal to each clade."

"Life is life's greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own. On life's scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest."

"A worm or mollusc that is injured, and perhaps writhing, may be feeling pain but could be showing an automatic response. The change in scientific thinking is that the weight of evidence for some of these animals now indicates that they may be feeling pain [...] Some aspects of the pain system exist in leeches, insects, snails, and swimming sea-slugs. However, we cannot be sure that these animals feel pain, or that they do not feel pain [...] There is a case for some degree of protection for spiders, gastropods and insects."

"Even if the probability of arthropods being sentient is considered much lower (e.g. less than 10%), the precautionary principle should be applied, because there are huge numbers of arthropods. At this moment, there are about 1018 terrestrial arthropods (mostly ants) and 1020 marine arthropods (mostly very small copepods as zooplankton). This can be compared with about 1010 humans. So if arthropods happen to be sentient and we erroneously believe they are not, we are neglecting huge amounts of welfare and suffering. When a lot is at stake, the precautionary principle is reasonable."

"[A] lot of insects are parasites or predators that kill other insects. So if we (accidentally, intentionally or indirectly) kill some insects, especially predators, we might save the lives of many other insects. Or stated differently: saving one ladybird might mean killing hundreds of aphids. Second, insects in the wild can have net-negative lives, i.e. short lives with more negative than positive experiences. These are lives not worth living. This is due to their reproductive strategy: a fertile adult insect can lay thousands of eggs. If the insect population does not explode at an extreme exponential rate, it is logically required that almost all of the newborn insects will have to die prematurely. The ways of dying are often extremely negative experiences: coldness, starvation, predation, parasitism,…. If an insect is killed, it prevents the birth of many insects with net-negative lives. So, if most insects face very short lives anyway and die horrible deaths anyway, it is far from clear whether killing insects increases overall future insect suffering. We need much more scientific research to estimate the overall effect of killing insects on global welfare."

"In the story of the life of the Buddha, in the early days of the saṃgha the monks had no fixed abode but wandered throughout the year. Eventually, the Buddha instructed monks to cease their peregrinations during the torrential monsoon period in order to prevent the killing of insects and worms while walking on muddy roads."

"Whenever taking a step, always watch for ants and insects. Prohibit the building of fires outside (lest insects be killed) and do not set mountain woods or forests ablaze."

"Thanks that I can say I have never killed a bird. I would not crush the meanest insect which crawls upon the ground. They have the same right to life that I have, they received it from the same Father, and I will not mar the works of God by wanton cruelty."

"Bees also display optimistic and pessimistic emotional states. In such tests, bees first learned that one stimulus (such as the colour blue) is linked to a sugar reward, while another (such as green) is not. They were then faced with an intermediate stimulus (in this case, turquoise). Intriguingly, they responded to this ambiguous stimulus in a 'glass half full', optimistic manner, if they had encountered a surprise reward (a tiny droplet of sucrose solution) on the way to the experiment. But if they had to suffer through an unexpected, adverse stimulus, they responded in a 'glass half empty' (pessimistic) manner."

"E'en 'plaining flies to thee have spoke, Poor trifles as they be; And oft the spider's web thou'st broke, To set the captive free."

"There is much debate as to whether invertebrates can feel pain, although most species show responses to adverse stimuli."

"I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live."

"Feeling implies the presence of a mind and a mental experience, [or] consciousness. I have every reason to believe that invertebrates not only have emotions but also the possibility of feeling those emotions."

"Many insects stridulate by rubbing together specially modified parts of their hard integuments. This stridulation generally serves as a sexual charm or call; but it is likewise used to express different emotions [...] anger, terror, jealousy, and love."

"When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its burrow—to use the expression employed by a friend—we are at first led to look at the action as a reflex one. The irritation of the cerebral ganglia appears to cause certain muscles to contract in an inevitable manner, independently of the will or consciousness of the animal, as if it were an automaton. But the different effect which a light produced on different occasions, and especially the fact that a worm when in any way employed and in the intervals of such employment, whatever set of muscles and ganglia may then have been brought into play, is often regardless of light, are opposed to the view of the sudden withdrawal being a simple reflex action. With the higher animals, when close attention to some object leads to the disregard of the impressions which other objects must be producing on them, we attribute this to their attention being then absorbed; and attention implies the presence of a mind. Every sportsman knows that he can approach animals whilst they are grazing, fighting or courting, much more easily than at other times. The state, also, of the nervous system of the higher animals differs much at different times, for instance, a horse is much more readily startled at one time than at another. The comparison here implied between the actions of one of the higher animals and of one so low in the scale as an earth-worm, may appear farfetched; for we thus attribute to the worm attention and some mental power, nevertheless I can see no reason to doubt the justice of the comparison."

"Mental Qualities.—There is little to be said on this head. We have seen that worms are timid. It may be doubted whether they suffer as much pain when injured, as they seem to express by their contortions. Judging by their eagerness for certain kinds of food, they must enjoy the pleasure of eating. Their sexual passion is strong enough to overcome for a time their dread of light. They perhaps have a trace of social feeling, for they are not disturbed by crawling over each other's bodies, and they sometimes lie in contact. According to Hoffmeister they pass the winter either singly or rolled up with others into a ball at the bottom of their burrows.* Although worms are so remarkably deficient in the several sense-organs, this does not necessarily preclude intelligence, as we know from such cases as those of Laura Bridgman; and we have seen that when their attention is engaged, they neglect impressions to which they would otherwise have attended; and attention indicates the presence of a mind of some kind. They are also much more easily excited at certain times than at others."

"The wing'd Ichneumon for her embryon young Gores with sharp horn the caterpillar throng. The cruel larva mines its silky course, And tears the vitals of its fostering nurse. While fierce Libellula with jaws of steel Ingulfs an insect-province at a meal; Contending bee-swarms rise on rustling wings And slay their thousands with envenom'd stings."

"Once, indeed, Harry was caught twirling a cockchafer round, which he had fastened by a crooked pin to a long piece of thread, but then this was through ignorance and want of thought: for as soon as his father told him the poor helpless insect felt as much, or more than he would do, were a knife thrust through his hand, he burst into tears, and took the poor animal home, where he fed him during a fortnight on fresh leaves; and when he was perfectly recovered, turned him out to enjoy liberty and fresh air. Ever since that time, Harry was so careful and considerate, that he would step out of the way for fear of hurting a worm, and employed himself in doing kind offices to all the animals in the neighbourhood."

"[I]f all sentient beings have equal moral status and insects are sentient, it would seem that we would be obliged to take insects quite seriously indeed. This is highly counterintuitive. Moreover, if all who have moral status have it equally, then we should right now be very invested in the question of whether insects are sentient. If they are, then we are routinely harming trillions of beings with full, equal moral status—a very serious matter. The commonsense reaction that we need not be so concerned with the question of whether insects are sentient suggests that, if they are, their moral status is less than ours, implying that not all who have moral status have it equally."

"Do insects experience pain? Yes. Well actually, this concept has been disputed, but I think recent evidence suggests that they do experience what is defined as pain."

"In any case, abundant evidence indicates that all invertebrates with a brain can experience pain. Like vertebrates, numerous invertebrates produce natural opiates and substance P. These animals include crustaceans (e.g., crabs, lobsters, and shrimps), insects (e.g., fruit flies, locusts, and cockroaches), and mollusks (e.g., octopuses, squids, and snails) [...] Also, crustaceans, insects, and mollusks show less reaction to a noxious stimulus when they receive morphine. For example, morphine reduces the reaction of mantis shrimps to electric shock, praying mantises to electric shock, and land snails to a hot surface."

"The implications of the foregoing discussion, for insects and other invertebrates, need to be considered with caution. Clearly, it is not possible to provide a conclusive answer to the problem of pain in lower animals, as any subjective experience of an organism cannot be directly experienced by another and a means of communicating with lower organisms is not available to us."

"Bee-eating Wasps [...] feed their larvae on Hive-bees, whom they catch on the flowers while gathering pollen and honey. If the Wasp who has made a capture feels that her Bee is swollen with honey, she never fails, before stinging her, to squeeze her crop, either on the way or at the entrance of the dwelling, so as to make her disgorge the delicious syrup, which she drinks by licking the tongue which her unfortunate victim, in her death-agony, sticks out of her mouth at full length [...] At the moment of some such horrible banquet, I have seen the Wasp, with her prey, seized by the Mantis: the bandit was rifled by another bandit. And here is an awful detail: while the Mantis held her transfixed under the points of the double saw and was already munching her belly, the Wasp continued to lick the honey of her Bee."

"[H]aving worked out the markers that identify both aspects of consciousness in the vertebrates, we apply these same criteria to the invertebrates, and find that the arthropods (including insects and crabs) and cephalopods (like the octopus) meet many of the criteria for exteroceptive and affective consciousness. This would mean that consciousness evolved simultaneously but independently in the first arthropods and first vertebrates over half a billion years ago."

"I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, On a white heal-all, holding up a moth Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth— Assorted characters of death and blight Mixed ready to begin the morning right, Like the ingredients of a witches' broth A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth, And dead wings carried like a paper kite. What had that flower to do with being white, The wayside blue and innocent heal-all? What brought the kindred spider to that height, Then steered the white moth thither in the night? What but design of darkness to appall?— If design govern in a thing so small."

"Y: What are your opinions concerning the propriety of using silk? Z: I disapprove of the act of depriving the living grubs of their silk. I however understand, that numbers of them generally die naturally while enclosed in their silk; also that the silk of these is the most esteemed; and this of course may be used. Though I am averse to the act of depriving the living ones of their natural clothing, and substituting bran in its stead; but I severely censure the usual mode of baking them to death in an oven."

"One cool autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew in the blaze and were burned. , who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterwards remarked, "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures.""

"Several scientists and philosophers argue that because invertebrates such as insects, spiders, worms and snails may very well be able to feel pain or suffering, our moral concern should be extended to such beings. Different kinds of evidence have been used to infer whether they can feel pain, including facts about their nervous systems, observations of behavior that indicate learning to avoid harm, and evolutionary arguments about whether feelings of pain would give a fitness advantage. Despite a growing number of studies on invertebrate pain, the evidence is not conclusive, which raises the political and ethical question of what to do under this uncertainty. The uncertainty supports that we should care about the potential suffering of invertebrates such as insects, and take and avoid at least some actions to reduce their potential suffering in case they can suffer. Potential invertebrate suffering is worth paying attention to, even if it is unlikely that they can suffer, primarily because of the large number of individuals involved and the severity of the harms that they endure. For instance, thousands of insects can be killed by boiling to produce one piece of silk clothing. This means that if such invertebrates can suffer substantially, their suffering would be a large-scale ethical disaster. In addition, the fact that invertebrates are so neglected should appeal to effective altruists and others looking to have an outsized impact."

"If I died and was offered to be born again as an insect or cease to exist, I would definitely choose not to exist [...] There is enormous inequality among the fates of insects. Some die very young, either as larvae, pupae, or just after having emerged from the pupa stage as adults, and it is difficult to see how most such lives can be good on balance. Death often seems very painful so, because their lives are so short, they do not include enough positive wellbeing to compensate their suffering."

"We have literally no idea at what level of brain complexity consciousness stops. Most people say, "For heaven's sake, a bug isn't conscious." But how do we know? We're not sure anymore. I don't kill bugs needlessly anymore. [...] Probably what consciousness requires is a sufficiently complicated system with massive feedback. Insects have that."

"[B]ees and other members of the vast class of insects are all capable of sophisticated, learnt, non-stereotyped behaviours that we associate with consciousness if carried out by people."

"So, given that we can't be sure whether insects experience pain, how should we treat these creatures? When I was teaching insect anatomy and physiology I insisted that the students anesthetized insects before conducting experiments that we would expect to inflict pain on a mouse. [...] It seems ethically obligatory to guard against the possibility that insects feel pain. If we use anesthetic and it turns out that insects don't experience pain, the material cost of our mistake is very low [...] However, if we don't use anesthetic and it turns out that the insects were in agony, then the moral cost of our mistake is quite high."

"Considerable empirical evidence supports the assertion that insects feel pain and are conscious of their sensations. In so far as their pain matters to them, they have an interest in not being pained and their lives are worsened by pain. Furthermore, as conscious beings, insects have future (even if immediate) plans with regard to their own lives, and the death of insects frustrates these plans. In that sentience appears to be an ethically sound, scientifically viable basis for granting moral status and in consideration of previous arguments which establish a reasonable expectation of consciousness and pain in insects, I propose the following, minimum ethic: We ought to refrain from actions which may be reasonably expected to kill or cause nontrivial pain in insects when avoiding these actions has no, or only trivial, costs to our own welfare."

"Jumping spiders (Portia spp.) plan routes towards their prey; and hermit crabs (Pagurus berhnardus) show evidence of motivational trade-offs during shell choice. Furthermore, if their brains are implanted with electrodes, garden snails (Helix aspersa) will learn to displace a lever, an action new to their behavioural repertoire, to stimulate those neural regions involved in sexual behaviour. None of these represent concrete evidence of conscious emotion, but they at least suggest that if cephalopods are to now be protected across Europe, then arachnids, decapod crustaceans and gastropods should be too."

"The ant is the most pugnacious of all animals, and the most muscular compared with its size. It will boldly attack the biggest creature that walks if this creature invades its home. It will fasten its mandibles into an enemy, and allow itself to be torn to pieces without relaxing its hold. Among some savage tribes, certain species of ants are said to be used as surgeons. Infuriated ants are allowed to fasten their mandibles on the opposite edges of a gash, and in this way the wound is closed. The ants are decapitated, and their bodiless heads with their relentless jaws serve as stitches to the wound."

"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum. And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on; While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."

"This could potentially reduce consumption of vertebrate meat, moving farming away from intensive agriculture towards higher welfare organic systems. Yet entomophagy can only make a significant difference if insects are mass-produced [...] What if these trillions of insects also suffer? If we neglect this possibility, it is feasible that we will move from one intensive poor-welfare system to another, where conscious organisms are inhumanely farmed in greater numbers than anything we have seen before."

"Ultimately, we don't know for sure that invertebrates suffer in a comparative way to other animals, but given that at any moment the earth contains a billion billion insects, it seems prudent to take the precautionary principle. The potential for these insects to consciously experience some kind of suffering must have an impact on how we interact with them, and our crop fields are a very good place to start."

"In conclusion, recent results from neurophysiological, neuroanatomical and behavioral sciences prompt caution when denying consciousness, and therefore the likelihood of presence of pain and suffering or something closely related to it, to insects. This strongly underlines earlier statements that while awaiting results of further research one should consider the possibility that at least some insect species might suffer pain and, as a precaution, always ensure humane handling of these animals, including the application of anesthesia and analgesia for painful procedures and humane killing techniques."

"Hurt no living thing: Ladybird nor butterfly, Nor moth with dusty wing, Nor cricket cheering cheerily, Nor grasshopper so light of leap, Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat, Nor harmless worms that creep."

""Crush not yonder [ant] as it draggeth along its grain; for it too liveth, and its life is sweet to it." A shadow must there be, and a stone upon that heart, that could wish to sorrow the heart even of an [ant]! Strike not with the hand of violence the head of the feeble; for one day, like the ant, thou mayest fall under the foot thyself! Pity the poor moth in the flame of the taper; see how it is scorched in the face of the assembly!"

"The fundamental commandment of ethics, then, is that we cause no suffering to any living creature, not even the lowest, unless it is to effect some necessary protection for ourselves, and that we be ready to undertake, whenever we can, positive action for the benefit of other creatures."

"If I save an insect from a puddle, life has devoted itself to life, and the division of life against itself is ended."

"I too am subject to division of my will-to-life against itself. In a thousand ways my existence stands in conflict with that of others. The necessity to destroy and to injure life IS imposed upon me. If I walk along an unfrequented path, my foot brings destruction and pain upon the tiny creatures which populate it. In order to preserve my own existence, I must defend myself against the existence which injures it. I become a persecutor of the little mouse which inhabits my house, a murderer of the insect which want to have its nest there, a mass-murderer of the bacteria which may endanger my life. I get my food by destroying plants and animals. My happiness is built upon injury done to my fellow-men."

"And the poor beetle, that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies."

"That does not mean that we should launch a campaign for insect rights. We still do not know enough about insect subjective experiences to do that; and, in any case, the world is far from being ready to take such a campaign seriously. We need first to complete the extension of serious consideration to the interests of vertebrate animals, about whose capacity for suffering there is much less doubt."

"The question of pain in invertebrates will be extremely difficult to resolve—if, indeed, it is resolvable. In the meantime, perhaps it can be agreed that it is most appropriate to concentrate efforts on maintaining and improving the general well-being of invertebrates used in research, that is, to ensure that these animals are kept in the best and most appropriate conditions during their lives in the laboratory; given the benefit of the doubt in procedures which have the potential to cause pain and distress; and, when the time comes, killed in the most humane manner possible."

"It is a sin against that God who created both them and you, to inflict unnecessary suffering upon any of his creatures. Ask yourselves, too, how you would like such treatment, from one stronger than yourself. If you meet a beetle or a caterpillar, step aside, and do not wantonly crush it. And should you see a poor earth-worm, lying in the dusty path, parched with the sun, and too much exhausted to regain his home, extend a kind hand to help him, and place him on the nearest cool and moist ground. He is a harmless little creature, though not pleasing to the eye or agreeable, but he is God’s workmanship: and while you are thankful for being endowed with reason, and with an immortal soul, let the inferior creatures enjoy their little lives while they may."

"[W]ith our present knowledge, it is usually concluded that insects cannot feel pain. Still, doubts have been raised. Among invertebrates, social insects represent a high level of cognition, and their welfare should be considered during handling."

"I'll not hurt thee, says my uncle Toby, rising from his chair, and going across the room, with the fly in his hand,—I'll not hurt a hair of thy head:—Go, says he, lifting up the sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it escape;—go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee?—This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me."

"I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near foreleg of his enemy, having severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior, whose breast-plate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of the sufferer's eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite [...] I felt for the rest of that day as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the ferocity and carnage, of a human battle before my door."

"Insects are far more numerous than NPCs right now, and they're also far more sophisticated. Many insects have at least 100,000 neurons and exhibit not only reactive and goal-directed behavior like NPCs but also reinforcement learning, selective attention, memory, sleep-like states, cognitive generalization, social behavior, and so on. There are an estimated 1019 insects on Earth, compared with around 1010 humans or around 1011 to 1012 birds. Even if you count just raw number of neurons, insects outweigh humans by a few orders of magnitude. While humans may matter a lot more for instrumental reasons related to the trajectory of the far future, in terms of pure morally relevant amount of sentience, insects may dominate on Earth at the moment."

"My personal conclusion is that we should give some weight to the possibility of bug suffering, especially until more evidence is available. Thus, considering the 1018 insects that exist at any given time, there is a huge amount of (potential) suffering in nature due to insects alone. We may also want to consider the ways in which humans impact insects, such as through insecticide use, although insecticides could potentially prevent more suffering than they cause if they avert vast numbers of future offspring that would have mostly died, possibly painfully, soon after being born."

"There's a reasonable possibility that insects have some degree of consciousness and can experience suffering. Given how many insects each of us harms or helps by our choices, consideration of insect suffering should play a significant role in our actions. For instance, we should generally avoid buying silk and shellac, reduce driving especially when roads are wet, and minimize walking on grass or in the woods. Most insect suffering results from natural causes such as predation, parasitism, physical injury, and dehydration. We should encourage concern for wild-insect suffering and research ways in which human environmental policies can reduce it. Our descendants should also think twice before spreading insects and insect-like creatures to new realms, which could multiply suffering manyfold."

"In debates regarding whether insects and other invertebrates can feel pain, conflicting evidence can be raised on either side. For example, it seems clear from many studies that invertebrates can learn to avoid electric shock, heat, certain chemicals, and so on. Meanwhile, there are examples of invertebrates apparently unconcerned by physical injury. In my opinion, this collection of evidence suggests that invertebrates plausibly suffer in response to some stimuli but maybe not others. If so, it seems useful to further explore which particular stimuli are unpleasant to invertebrates to what degrees, in order to inform ethical treatment of invertebrates."

"Entomophagy (eating insects for food) is sometimes proposed as an alternative to factory farming because it has lower environmental impact. But entomophagy is not necessarily more humane than factory farming of livestock all things considered, and along some dimensions it's actually worse, because it involves killing vastly more animals per unit of protein. Rather than promoting insect consumption, let's focus on plant-based meat substitutes."

"The spider was so contrived that she would not eat grass, but must catch flies, and such things, and inflict a slow and horrible death upon them, unaware that her turn would come next. The wasp was so contrived that he also would decline grass and stab the spider, not conferring upon her a swift and merciful death, but merely half paralysing her, then ramming her down into the wasp den, there to live and suffer for days, while the wasp babies should chew her legs off at their leisure. In turn, there was a murderer provided for the wasp, and another murderer for the wasp’s murderer, and so on throughout the whole scheme of living creatures in the earth. There isn’t one of them that was not designed and appointed to inflict misery and murder on some fellow creature and suffer the same, in turn, from some other murderous fellow creature. In flying into the web the fly is merely guilty of an indiscretion—not a breach of any law—yet the fly’s punishment is ten-thousandfold out of proportion to that little indiscretion."

"The bias against small beings seems closely related to another bias we have, namely the bias to believe what is most convenient. For it would no doubt be much more convenient if small beings such as insects are not sentient. If they are, and if they can feel pain, the world suddenly becomes very complex and messy, and not least full of suffering beyond what we have imagined thus far. Therefore, it seems reasonable to suspect that our reasoning is somewhat motivated to jump to the conclusion that insects are not sentient."

"[P]erhaps the most significant result of the 'Molecular Biology' of the past 25 years is the bond it has established between ourselves and the 'lower animals'. They have become so close to us. Indeed, nowadays one has the same feeling of unease in speaking of the 'lower animals' as one would in referring to the 'lower classes' [...] I am sure that insects can feel pain if the right stimulus is given. High temperature seems the clearest example, and perhaps electric shocks. For practical purposes why not assume that that is so? Most operations on insects are actually facilitated if the insect is narcotized."

"Do you know the meaning of the word Goodness? I see you are unwilling to answer. I will tell you. It is, first, to avoid hurting any thing; and then, to contrive to give as much pleasure as you can. If any insects are to be destroyed, to preserve my garden from desolation, I have it done in the quickest way."

"We have shown that the emotional responses of bees to an aversive event are more similar to those of humans than previously thought [...] Bees stressed by a simulated predator attack exhibit pessimism mirroring that seen in depressed and anxious people."

"Be kind and compassionate to all creatures that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in this world. Never beat nor inflict pain on any animal, beast bird or insect. Do not throw stones at a dog or a cat, nor kill flies or wasps."

"Lo, the bright air alive with dragonflies, With brittle wings aquiver, and great eyes Piloting crimson bodies, slender and gay. I aimed at one, and struck it, and it lay Broken and lifeless, with fast-fading dyes. Then my soul sickened with a sudden pain And horror, at my own careless cruelty. That where all things are cruel I had slain A creature whose sweet life it is to fly: Like beasts that prey with bloody ciaw: Nay, they Must slay to live, but what excuse had I?"

"There are still lots of gaps in our knowledge of UK moths – hardly surprising given that we have 2,500 or so species here. For some, we still don’t know their natural food plant. For others, we don’t know if they still exist here. In this latter regard, it seems incredible to me that we are still arguing about the scale of in the UK, and what the causes of those declines are. We think moth numbers have probably dropped by 30% since 1970, but that information is only available for the commoner species of larger moths, and may be biased in various ways. While we have a rich history of moth recording, and some good data for moth population changes, we could really do with more."

"There is much diversity in the social habits of the larvae of moths. Some are gregarious and exist in colonies which disperse at the time of ; but there are a few singular instances, in which the communistic instinct perdures, and leads the entire colony to form a common cocoon, or envelope of silk, in which each individual subsequently spins a smaller cocoon for itself."

"... ... a beautiful tangerine-toned species, banded with silver ... was unknown in Britain before 2002, but has spread far and wide across England and Wales, becoming common wherever Horse-chestnut trees grow. This is not, however, a zero-to-hero story but one of zero-to-alleged villain. Forestry Research, Britain's public body responsible for tree-related research, classifies Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner as a pest. The moth's caterpillars munch away the tree's leaves, causing them to discolour before prematurely falling to the ground. In truth, this does not appear to impoverish the tree's health. But that, for public body and general public, alike, is beside the point. This moth is a pest, and pests must be persecuted. By lazy association, all moths are vexatious. This one chomps leaves, but others devour our clothes and carpets. And we really don't like that. Ergo all moths are evil. ... Pilloried, slighted and vilified, moths are Mother Nature's bad boys. Butterflies, those poster children of the insect world, have it easy."

"You would be another : yet, they say, all the she spun in ' absence did but fill full of moths."

"Into the silver night She brought with her pale hand The topaz lanthorn-light, And darted splendour o’er the land; Around her in a band, Ringstraked and pied, the great soft moths came flying, And flapping with their mad wings, fann’d The flickering flame, ascending, falling, dying."

"Most cricket species are musical, sound-producing insects that have long been part of human life and lore. For instance, according to Polynesian creed, crickets are embodiments of the souls of loved ones, and in many countries a cricket singing at the hearth is thought to bring luck and protect the home against evil spirits. The fierce rivalry behavior of male crickets was well known in ancient China; games were organized and bets were waged on the outcome of their battles. But it is the elaborate behavior of crickets, and especially their acoustic communication, which has always drawn the most attention from biologists and the general public."

"In this review, we report over 60 cricket species that are consumed in 49 countries globally. Nutritionally, crickets are reported to be rich in proteins, ranging from 55 to 73%, and lipids, which range from 4.30 to 33.44% of dry matter. The reported amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is 58% of the total fatty acids. Edible crickets contain an appreciable amount of macro- and micro-mineral elements such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, iron, zinc, manganese, and copper. Also, the crickets are rich in the required amount of vitamins such as B group vitamins and vitamins A, C, D, E, and K."

"When I was five years old and lived in the city—in Brooklyn, New York—a miraculous thing happened one summer. A cricket! One night I heard a cricket calling. What ab beautiful sound. It was the only one, a lonely soloist calling for a mate. Each evening I'd lie in bed listening to the cricket. A few nights after the serenading began, I happened to be outside with my father shortly after dark. I saw a big cockroach and dutifully stepped on it without a thought, as I'd been taught to do. "Dad, look at the big roach I just killed!" So proud. "That's not a roach, Carl; that's a cricket." I had killed the night's music. Whoa."

"As time went on, I began to think the reputation of the Lapland mosquito had been exaggerated. Mosquitoes were common, but certainly not in the concentrated numbers I had heard of. The reindeer must be timid animals indeed, I decided, to be troubled by so few mosquitoes. Gradually, however, I began to scratch more frequently. Soon they attacked in such clouds that one was forced to breathe through clenched teeth to avoid making a meal of them. The wet Lapland summer ground was perfect for mosquito breeding. Unless there was a good breeze, to go outside was to suffer. Standard mosquito sprays and lotions were pitifully ineffective."

"In Kenya and the Comoros, the vector of the was ', the previously reported to be involved in transmission in Africa and Asia. In contrast, in Reunion and Mauritius, , was the primary vector. The devastating outbreak resulted from a human–mosquito–human cycle that, as in dengue, did not require an external nonhuman reservoir. A. albopictus is also prevalent in Mayotte and Madagascar, but it is unclear which vector was involved in most islands of the Comorian archipelago, where studies have not been conducted or are ongoing. There is recent evidence that the outbreak in India, where A. aegypti is the primary species of mosquito, was caused by the new variant of the virus. ... A. albopictus is generally considered to have a lower vector capacity for arboviruses than A. aegypti. Specific mosquito populations, however, may have a high vector capacity, ... as suggested by a massive outbreak of dengue that was propagated by A. albopictus in Reunion in 1977. It is also possible that the strain of chikungunya virus in the Indian Ocean became better adapted to the A. albopictus vector."

"… while mosquito management is a necessary public health service, common methods of control –aerial and ground spraying of pesticides– not only have questionable efficacy, but can also harm non-target organisms like pollinators, whose populations are already suffering elevated losses. … commonly used mosquito control pesticides and their application can potentially harm bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, ultimately affecting overall biodiversity. While we do not underestimate the threat from new and current mosquito-borne diseases, an ideal mosquito management strategy adopts an integrated approach that emphasizes education, aggressive removal of breeding sites (such as standing water), larval control, monitoring, and surveillance. Alternative strategies, including introducing mosquito-eating fish, encouraging predators, such as bats, birds, dragonflies, and frogs, and using least-toxic larvicides, like ' (Bt), can be applied successfully without endangering pollinators and other organisms."

"... The Sierra mosquitoes are courageous and of good size, some of them measuring nearly an inch from tip of sting to tip of folded wings. Though less abundant than in most wildernesses, they occasionally make quite a hum and stir, and pay but little attention to time or place. They sting anywhere, any time of day, wherever they can find anything worth while, until they themselves are stung by frost."

"... when the weather stays hot and mosquitoes are plenty, the hours of darkness, even in midsummer, seem painfully long. In the Bad Lands proper we are not often bothered very seriously by these winged pests; but in the low bottoms of the Big Missouri, and beside many of the reedy ponds and great sloughs out on the prairie, they are a perfect scourge. During the very hot nights, when they are especially active, the bed-clothes make a man feel absolutely smothered and yet his only chance for sleep is to wrap himself tightly up, head and all; and even then some of the pests will usually force their way in. At sunset I have seen the mosquitoes rise up from the land like a dense cloud, to make the hot, stifling night one long torture; the horses would neither lie down nor graze, traveling restlessly to and fro till daybreak, their bodies streaked and bloody, and the insects settling on them so as to make them all one color, a uniform gray; while the men, after a few hours' tossing about in the vain attempt to sleep, rose, built a little fire of damp sage brush, and thus endured the misery as best they could until it was light enough to work."

"It may be difficult to love the mosquito, but anyone who comes to know her well develops a deep appreciation. A few species, like the iridescent blue-lined ', are truly beautiful. All manifest exquisite adaptation to their environment. As an adult, she walks on water as well as land. She flies through the night air with the aid of the stars. She not only sees and smells but also senses heat from a distance. Lacking our kind of a brain, she nevertheless thinks with her skin, changing direction, and fleeing danger in response to myriad changes in her surroundings."

"A swarming and consuming army of 110 trillion enemy mosquitoes patrols every inch of the globe save Antarctica, Iceland, and a handful of French Polynesian micro-islands. The biting female warriors of this droning insect population are armed with at least fifteen lethal and debilitating biological weapons against our 7.7 billion humans deploying suspect and often self-detrimental defensive capabilities. In fact, our defense budget for personal shield, sprays, and other deterrents to stymie her unrelenting raids has a rapidly rising annual revenue of $11 billion. And yet, her deadly offensive campaigns and crimes against humanity continue with reckless abandon. While our counterattacks are reducing the number of annual casualties she perpetrates, the mosquito remains the deadliest hunter of human beings on the planet. Last year she slaughtered only 830,000 people."

"The nasal botfly ' (, : ) is a myiasis-causing insect species, which affects the health of sheep, goats and humans. Gravid females are viviparous and larviposit into the animal’s nostrils. Host-searching and larvipositing flies are visually guided and influenced by climatic conditions, whereas olfaction seemed to play no role in this process. However, here, we show that the antennae of adult O. ovis female flies are relatively small but well developed and inhabited by several types of olfactory sensilla. Further, we show that the antennal lobes of this species receive input from antennal afferents and consist of a clearly defined glomerular organisation. We also give the first evidence of the fly’s ability to detect several synthetic odour compounds."

"', commonly known as the human botfly, is native to Tropical America. As such, cutaneous infestation by its developing larvae, or myiasis, is quite common in this region. The distinct dermatological presentation of D hominis myiasis allows for its early recognition and noninvasive treatment by locals. However, it can prove quite perplexing for those unfamiliar with the lesion's unique appearance. Common erroneous diagnoses include the following: , , and embedded with localized ."

"... the way mosquitoes serve botflies in Central and South America. The size of a , the fly seizes a mosquito in midair and glues her own eggs to her captive's abdomen. Later, when the mosquito feeds on a person, the damp warmth of human skin causes the fly's eggs to hatch, leaving maggots to burrow into the new host. Soon, the maggot's breathing apparatus can be seen poking through the victim's skin. Within a week, it's as large as a small olive."

"Whitefly-borne diseases of plants cause great concern in many tropical areas ... The fact that s, s, s, and other edible , which are primary sources of protein for the diet of many people in the Tropics, fall prey to some of theses agents have prompted local governments and international agencies to institute programs for their study and control ..."

"Virus diseases that have emerged in the past two decades limit the production of important vegetable crops in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions worldwide, and many of the causal viruses are transmitted by whiteflies (order Hemiptera, family Aleyrodidae). Most of these whitefly-transmitted viruses are begomoviruses (family ), although whiteflies are also vectors of criniviruses, ipomoviruses, torradoviruses, and some carlaviruses. Factors driving the emergence and establishment of whitefly-transmitted diseases include genetic changes in the virus through mutation and recombination, changes in the vector populations coupled with polyphagy of the main vector, ', and long distance traffic of plant material or vector insects due to trade of vegetables and ornamental plants. The role of humans in increasing the emergence of virus diseases is obvious, and the effect that climate change may have in the future is unclear."

"In tomato production, both open field and greenhouse, management of whiteflies and the viruses they transmit ranks among the highest priorities of growers. Largely driven by the damage of two species, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) and Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood, a wealth of information has been developed over the last 150 years that informs current whitefly management programs and provides the foundation for such programs in the future. The literature on whiteflies is vast ..."

"Whiteflies, Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae, Bemisia tabaci, a complex of morphologically indistinguishable species ... , are vectors of many plant viruses. Several genera of these whitefly-transmitted plant viruses (Begomovirus, Carlavirus, Crinivirus, Ipomovirus, Torradovirus) include several hundred species of emerging and economically significant pathogens of important food and fiber crops ... These viruses do not replicate in their vector but nevertheless are moved readily from plant to plant by the adult whitefly by various means ... For most of these viruses whitefly feeding is required for acquisition and inoculation, while for others only probing is required. Many of these viruses ... cannot be easily transmitted by other means."

"Exotic invasive whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in India cause direct and indirect yield losses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry crop plants. Around 25 years ago, the spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus disperses Russell invaded and established on many host plants including economically important crops in India. Recently, within a span of five years, seven whiteflies invaded India viz., solanum whitefly, Aleurothrixus trachoides (Back) reported to breed on 37 plant species; rugose spiraling whitefly (RSW), Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin found breeding on 40 host plants; nesting whiteflies, Paraleyrodes bondari Peracchi on 34 host plants and P. minei Ιaccarino infest about 25 host plants; legume feeding whitefly, Tetraleurodes acaciae (Quaintance) infesting 5 host plants; palm infesting whitefly, Aleurotrachelus atratus Hempel on 4 host plants and woolly whitefly, Aleurothrixus floccosus (Maskell) infesting guava. These invasive species are native to the Neotropical region, mostly from Central America and the Caribbean. Extensive spread along the coastal regions and gardens near the backwater of India is predicted owing to the favorable weather factors and availability of host plants. Species of exotic whiteflies with similar habits co-exist in more or less the same niche and have a similar pattern of growth and development. The intensity of infestation of RSW on coconut, banana and oil palm, the woolly whitefly on guava and the palm infesting whitefly and nesting whiteflies on coconut was severe. The exotic aphelinid parasitoid, Encarsia guadeloupae Viggiani (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), a predator Pseudomallada astur (Banks) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) and the entomopathogenic fungus, Isaria fumosorosea Wize (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) play a major role in reducing the population of these invasives. The most insidious spread of these species in India is likely mediated by humans through the movement of infested seedlings and plant materials. Extensive surveys revealed that these species spread rapidly in the large geographical region of India mostly through transportation of infested seedlings."

"• Whiteflies are plant phloem feeders and have diverse interactions with host plants. • Plants defend against whitefly attacks by alternations of morphology and physiology. • Whitefly oral secretions, honeydew and endosymbionts regulate plant defense. • Viruses may mediate whitefly–plant interactions directly and indirectly."

"Raymond Cannon (quote was found from x.com)"

"Owning bees that look after themselves and keeping bees according to modern methods are widely different practices. Bees have been kept by man in various ways for centuries, but in the United States the science of beekeeping began when the hive with movable frames was patented on October 5, 1852, by , who has been called the father of modern beekeeping."

"Bees were collected from natural nests for use in beekeeping in parts of Western Europe, as in other regions. Records from legal proceedings in various parts of Luxembourg between 1459 and 1738 (Poos, 1978) show that wild colonies were much sought, and that a substantial value was placed on them in law. For instance in 1663 a colony was classed with a calf or a young partridge, which was worth twice as much as a piglet, lamb or kid. It seems that from 1459 onwards, and probably before, the bees were wanted (to populate hives ...) rather than honey or , and that by the mid-1400s had largely been superseded by hive beekeeping in Luxembourg."

"Appreciating the role that bees and their products have played in requires a cultural immersion. The honey bee can be found in many of the earlier examples of Egyptian writing. During the , shortly after the construction of the and the , we find carved reliefs showing that the Egyptians had already mastered the art of beekeeping and were processing honey (Kritsky 2010)."

"Those beekeepers who are also engaged in general farming or who specialize in one or two farm crops are usually too busy elsewhere to give the bees the necessary attention at the time when they most require it and consequently few of this class of beekeepers rise to the ranks of the specialists. This is not so true of amateur beekeepers, since some of the many occupations which they follow usually permit the time and study necessary to the making of the proficient beekeeper."