I am an entomologist. I study insects for a living. Whenever I catch myself thinking that I know more about insects than do most people, I promptly think of a conversation in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ The Poet at the Breakfast Table:
"I suppose you are an entomologist?
Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name. No man can be truly called an entomologist, sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp."
Most entomologists would be more than willing to agree with Holmes’ speaker. Of all the living creatures, the insects are the most wondrous. Not also the most numerous. they are the most numerous. There are estimated to be aout 900,000 different species of insects. Of this number, entomologists have so far described only about 685,000 (or about three-quarters), leaving over 200,000 species to be described by future entomologists.
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Philip S. Callahan, Ph.D. Philip S, Callahan holds a Ph.D. in entomology from Kansas State University, and until recently was Professor of Entomology on the graduate faculty of the University of Georgia.... |