APRIL
2013
By
Tom Turpin
Professor of
Entomology
Purdue University
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04-25-13
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Some Insects Produce Artistic Renderings
Most people don't think of insects as
artists. However, as these six-legged
creatures go about their daily lives, some
end up creating things. A few humans
consider these renderings art, or at least
something of decorative value.
One of the most common insect-created
items that finds a place in our decorations
Hornet Nest
is the bald-faced hornet nest. These greyand-white mottled nests are created during
the summer months. The nest is where the hornets raise the next
generation. Each nest is established in the early summer by a queen
hornet that has spent the winter hibernating in some protected place,
such as leaves on the floor of a woodlot.
Bald-faced hornet nests are constructed of a paper-like material made
of chewed wood mixed with insect saliva. The number of hornets
increases during the season, and the nest is enlarged to accommodate
the growing multitude. By summer's end, such a nest sometimes
exceeds a basketball in size and might be home to nearly 700 adult
hornets. Each of those hornets can sting and is prepared to do so, if
something bothers the nest. That is why stirring up a hornet's nest is
never, ever a good idea.
Wormwood is another insect-related item
that could be considered art. As the name
suggests, this is a wood product. Wood
with this name has served as a food
source for insect larvae and the feeding
scars remain. Many of the insects that
cause wormwood are beetles.
Wormwood
Some wormwood creators are called bark
beetles. This name reflects that they feed
just under the bark in the cambium layer of the tree. The infamous elm
bark beetle, which transmits the Dutch elm disease, is an example.
The emerald ash borer is another beetle that feeds under the bark of
the tree. This small, bright-green insect is classified in the family
Bupresidae. Another type of beetle with similar feeding habits, which
also creates wormwood, is the long-horned beetle. These beetles have
long antennae - appendages sometimes called horns - and are
members of the family Cerambycidae.
But watch out; everything called wormwood is not insect-related. For
instance, tree logs that lie submerged in water for a period of time can
be damaged by a mollusk called the teredo worm, and the result is
termed wormwood.
There is also a plant known as wormwood, but the name has nothing to
do with insects. This plant, Artemisia, is the source of an anise-flavored
spirit known as absinthe.
Some people have enlisted insects to help
create works of art. One approach is called
maggot art. Here's how it works. Fly
maggots are dipped in nontoxic paint and
then allowed to crawl on paper. As you
can imagine, these maggots leave a
colored trail as they go. Several maggots
dipped in different colors and released on
the same paper results in - well, maggot
art!
Emerald ash borer
Steven R. Kutcher has created a gallery of
bug art. Kutcher creates his work, or rather has insects create the work,
by dipping their six little feet in paint and then letting them go for a stroll
on a canvas. Kutcher has enlisted the aid of several species of insects
in this endeavor, including darkling beetles, Madagascar hissing
cockroaches, honey bees and butterflies. As an insect wrangler for
Hollywood movie producers, Kutcher got the idea for such art when
Steven Spielberg requested that he create fly tracks for a movie scene.
West Lafayette, Ind., resident and clay sculptor Linda LeMar often
creates sculptures inspired by what she sees in nature. In one such
sculpture, LeMar has incorporated nests of organ-pipe mud dauber
wasps. These mud daubers use wet soil to create nests that resemble
the pipes of a church organ, hence the common name of the insect.
Each pipe contains a number of individual cells, which the mud daubers
provision with spiders as a food source for the developing baby wasps.
The wasps spin a cocoon in the fall, and the following spring chew
through the cell wall to emerge and start a nest of their own. That is
why old nests have round holes in the side of many cells.
LeMar collected abandoned nests of some mud daubers and tested
them to see if they would hold up during the kiln firing process used to
create clay sculptures. The nests survived, and LeMar incorporated
some into a sculpture, as the hair and arms of a human figure. How is
that for an insect and an artist teaming up to produce a work of art?
Writer: Tom Turpin
[email protected]
Editor: Olivia
Maddox
[email protected]