25 - Sparky’s ‘Beetle-Ready’ World

 Hello, Sparky here.

Ø  I just realised that it’s been at least a couple of weeks since I even remarked on the weather; such has been the pace of life on Banyan Island that the all-important weather did not merit a mention. So, making up for that, here is a weather update: The weather in the last couple of weeks has been ideal - just the right amount of rain to keep us comfortable and uncomplaining, neither too hot, nor too cold.

 

Ø  In fact, that’s the reason we have been able to focus on something other than the weather – the elections – because Mother Nature allowed us the condition for that. It’s only when we sit to think about it does it strike us how much of our comfort and convenience we owe to Her. All it takes is a matter of a second for things to turn upside down and likewise leave our lives toppled as well. 

 

Ø  This week we enjoyed the quiet ‘regular’ life, leaving the hustle and bustle of the elections behind. The calm was intercepted for a couple of days by the presence of an ‘Entomologist’ on Banyan Island. An entomologist is a person who studies insects. The entomologist was brought to the island by our resident otters’ cousin, Mudra. This otter entomologist, Ms. Keetaki has made it her life’s passion to study insects and understand their importance in the preservation of our environment. There are known to be around 1.3 million described species on the planet of which insects alone account for more than two-thirds of all known life forms.

 

Ø  Ms. Keetaki went around the island looking for insects of all kinds – like Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). The couple of days she was on the island she also met us in the evenings and spoke of her passion and matters of concern related to her sphere of passion.

 

Ø  Insects recycle rotting wood and leaves which helps maintain soil fertility; they pollinate flowers which gives us fruits and vegetables, they help disperse seeds and keeps the species of plant alive and forest healthy; they keep population of certain species under control and in turn are a source of protein rich food source to many species of animals and birds. So, not only us, animals but humans too owe a great deal to the ‘tiny little lives’. Some humans complain that insects destroy their crops but invariably it’s the non-native species introduced by man himself - without their natural predators - that are responsible for the damage.

 

Ø  Insects are crucial to the survival of the forests that they live in. Insectivorous birds, small carnivores and rodents are directly depend on insects as their food source and other fruit eating birds and animals depend on insects to pollinate the plants that produces the food they eat, so if the population of insects are affected in an ecosystem, the entire forest collapses. This is what humans are doing by pursuing hobbies like ‘Insect collecting’.

 

Ø  Insect collectors drive a maniacal demand for insects which in the long term causes the catastrophic destruction to the ecosystem but even in the short term during the search for the insects tree barks are stripped, old logs are displaced, moss is uprooted, many other insects and birds lose their lives.

 

Ø  Ms. Keetaki gave us an example of ‘Beetle Mania’ in Japan which has spawned a huge demand for exotic beetles which are smuggled from many countries around the world. The demand for the beetles started after a video game became popular where the players collect virtual ‘stag beetles’ as fighters.

Ø  Stag beetles are like Rhinoceros beetles, though smaller in size but no less important when it comes to their contribution. They eat rotting wood returning important minerals to the soil and keeping the forest healthy.

 

Ø  Not just insects, human greed has been the reason for many life forms having gone extinct and still human greed knows no end – birds, aquatic creatures, musk from musk deer, tusk from elephants, horns from rhinos fins of sharks and whale meat – the list is endless and so is the destruction. We, animals are watching it with bated breath wondering if we are next.  Mother Nature is watching. It’s a matter of time before Her patience runs out and She says, ‘I have had enough.’         

Author’s Note

While looking at my collection of photographs for using it in the magazine, I came across photos of ‘Stag Beetles’ that I had seen in 2011 in Mizoram, in the northeast of India. For a couple of days, I did believe that I had seen ‘Rhinoceros Beetles’, amongst the biggest and strongest beetles on Earth.   I saw the beetles in a coffee plantation. In fact, the male beetle is on a coffee plant. If you know how big a coffee seed is, you will be able to get a fair idea of just how big these beetles are.

Here are a few activities for this week. After reading about insects, if you haven’t been too put off or haven’t gone looking for them then I hope you will enjoy solving them.

·         Here’s a funny photo of a langur grooming another langur.  This was clicked in Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand, India. Look at the photo and identify all the objects in the photo starting with the letter ‘L’.

·         Analogical reasoning questions. Understand the relation between the first 2 words in the first column and then extending the same logic to the next two words, find the answer amongst the choices in the next 4 columns:

Cat : Land :: Catfish : ?	Water	Air	Ocean	River
Dog : Bark :: Hyena : ?	Giggle	Meow	Purr	Laugh
Alter : Change :: Rectify : ?	Pacify	Assume	Correct	Modify
Strange : Bizarre :: Kind : ?	Compassionate	Rude	Unkind	Generous
Censure : Criticize :: Censor : ?	Publicize	Abandon	Sponsor	Ban
Broach : Hair :: Bracelet : ?	Hand	Braces	Wrist	Palm

 

·         Here are a few hobbies in column 1 and their meanings in column 2. Can you match the two:

Hobby	Meaning
Conchology	Collecting matchboxes
Philately	Using strips of paper for artwork
Phillumeny	Decorating objects with paper cut-outs
Birding	Collecting Seashells
Ikebana	Collecting stamps
Decoupage	Observing birds in their natural habitats
Quilling	Floral Arrangement

 

‘Little readers’ Section’

• Here’s a photo of a female Rose-ringed Parakeet sitting next to a Bottlebrush flower. What do you think the Parakeet does next?

• See you all next week with more news, activities and answers to this week’s puzzles.
• In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com

Answers to last week’s puzzles:

·         Solve the riddles below, put the words together and you will find out my present feeling towards the whole election business.

All	Means ‘everything’, The whole lot, not just one thing
Is	An auxiliary verb, Means in the present, not the past.
Well	Means ‘alright’ or ‘good’, Means also what Jack & Jill went in pursuit of, which on the hill, stood.
That	Rhymes with ‘Hat’ Also contains the above word in it.
Ends	Everything has to cease. This is what this word means. Everything that has a beginning, has also this.
Well	A repeat of the third word, And means the same as that word.

 

·         Etymology is the study of the history of words. The etymology of a word traces its origin. It is very interesting to understand how a word came to be and how the languages of old all linked to each other and goes back to a time to when the world was not as connected as today and still be able to trace the word through languages that were spoken in geographically distant places.

Here are a few words in column 1 and their ‘original meaning’ in column 2. Try and match the two.

Word	Meaning	Language derived from
Amphibian	Both kinds of life	Ancient Greek
Animal	Having breath / Having soul	Latin
Dinosaur	Terrible, Fearful,  Lizard	Ancient Greek
Giraffe	Fast walker	Arabic
Rhinoceros	Horn on nose	Ancient Greek
Hippopotamus	Horse of the river	Ancient Greek
Gorilla	Tribe of hairy women	Ancient Greek
Snake	To Crawl	Old English

‘Little readers’ Section’

·         Wasps are insects like Bees. Most wasps live alone and not in colonies like Bees and Ants. Here are a few photographs of a Mud-dauber wasp building its nest to lay eggs. Look at the photos closely, understand what the wasp is doing in each of the photo and re-arrange the photos so it tells a story of how the wasp is going about the nest-building work.