So we found ourselves on the south bank at the pestival exibition – Celebrating insects in art, and the art of being an insect. I have become quite interested in keeping bees, whether this will ever materialise into actual bee keeping only time will tell but I am fascinated by the by animals that only exist in colonies. I like the blurring of what we deem to be a living organism. Termite, honey bee, and ant colonies could almost be said to be an organism in that only as a colonies can they fulfil the basic functions of feeding and procreation. They had some pretty impressive insect on show. A Madagascan hissing cockroach that was about as cuddly as an insect could get ( I know – wiered but true) and the the pictured leviathan that is the Jungle Nymph. I would love to know why they get so big. I know that they can get so big because the live in hot humid places and this presumably increases their repository potential. Still I wonder why they have evolved to be giants. My last insect related musing (before I go off to bed) is why so many (all?) insects metamorphosise and why is it a good thing from an evolutionary perspective.
