Invert life

 I have recently been trying to work on the draft for a book that serves as a simple introduction to observing insects in India. Keeping it short is a REAL struggle! In wrangling with my thoughts I have tried to keep it short and reduce polemics! And yet.... Anyway, I do not know how much of it I might have to trim out. Here is an uncensored draft for a section (that may or may not have a place in that book!). I have tried feeding it to AI to rework sections but nothing was satisfactory. Unautomated human feedback and gut reactions are welcome. 

How and what do we know about the insects of India

If you took a picture of any insect in say England or in any country in western Europe and posted it on the iNaturalist website, you will probably see it being identified to species within a couple of days. If you tried the same with an insect from India, the situation would be quite different. You might get the identification to family level, sometimes to the genus and most likely no further. You might see an expert who deals with just that family or group and comment that your photo likely represents an undescribed species or that specimens would be needed. This difference in knowledge availability (of just a narrow taxonomic kind) on local life forms has been variously attributed to historic influences that include a supposed cultural abhorrence for killing, a lack of support for curiosity-based questioning, the difficulties of maintaining reference collections in the humid tropics, the lack of learned societies (amid a caste- and class- fragmented elite within a largely unequal and oppressed society), or other factors placed under the rather large umbrella of colonialism. Overall, we can agree that historic forces have played a role in our collective ignorance of the smaller life-forms around us.

People posting photos to a place like iNaturalist expect the name of an insect. Typically this is a Latin binomial as the large majority of insects do not have species specific names in English or even other languages. Names in Indian languages for some groups have been contrived but are these are unlikely to be established unless there is a multi-generational culture of study and use among sufficient numbers of speakers of that language. The naming of insects under the binomial system depends on institutions such as natural history museums, collections in universities, specialists supported by universities and their libraries. Historically, the idea of collecting species, pinning them with labels and giving them a binomial name rose to popularity among the upper classes with large homes, with both fashion and religion playing roles. Wealthy collectors with leisure maintained private cabinets of curiosity and admiring the variety of organisms was seen as a form of admiration of God’s wisdom. The growth of colonialism made the major capitals of Europe the centres for harvesting and centralizing specimens from around the world, through a network that included native collectors, colonial officials, ship captains and natural history traders. All this was also aided by the growth of Learned Societies, the printing industry, and the growth of a class of people with leisure. This largely private industry involving wealthy individual amateurs gradually became more inclusive, shifting down the wealth-class of its participants, with the growth of public-funded museums, universities, research institutions, and specialization in the biological sciences. Today, the old-fashioned taxonomists quest for describing new species is looked down upon as a form of “stamp-collecting” and most modern institutional researchers examine speciation in an evolutionary light and describe new species mostly as a side effect of that study process. Curiosity and biophilia however are still a common connecting thread.

The seemingly easy act of giving a binomial name and categorizing an insect is based on the slow and irregular accretion of thousands of specimens by thousands of individuals (sometimes through a chain of hands - a field collector who passes it on to another and so on) over more than two centuries with specimens in institutions acting as a memory safeguard along with publications held in libraries, allowing verifiability across generations of humans. The act of formally describing species involves inventing words for the anatomy and morphology of insects which slowly become standardized according to rules. Specialists aired and exchanged ideas available in print across time and space through their writings in journals, so libraries have had a major role, and the socio-cultural role of public libraries, societies, universities, and museums cannot be down-played.

Economics drives the study of insects in some ways. The colonial Indian experience with famines and epidemics led to support for research in agriculture and public health. Some groups of insects have had studies supported by institutions begun in British India. In that period, it was generally understood that the key was in finding a weak link in the life-history that could be made use of in management practices. This encouraged the application of natural history observations and biological research techniques. Much of that research happened in an age when insecticides did not exist or were still limited in their efficiency. Today, potent non-selective insecticides are used in prophylactic sprays, killing indiscriminately with extreme efficiency, posing long-term dangers that are either overlooked or deliberately hidden. The possibility for mindless use of such chemicals, often supported by a powerful chemical industry lobby has reduced support for the need to study insects. It has also reduced the “value” of the little collective entomological expertise that was developed in the past.

An obsession with economic growth hinders curiosity-driven education and research. The study of local insects and indeed the observational study of most other life forms has not had sufficient support. Much of the teaching in India is old-fashioned and based on syllabi and textbooks, rather than being driven by questions and curiosity. Curiosity from outside academia has few places to go. India with its siloed academic spaces limiting interdisciplinary research and a class- and caste-ridden academic hierarchy that seeks to rise and separate itself from the general public, perhaps predictably, fares poorly in locally-rooted research. The reward system drives academics to seek repute mostly among western peers since there is often insufficient critical mass within any field of science within the country.

Against this backdrop of limited support from specialists within the country, there has been a ground up movement enabled by the internet and there has been a growth in amateur interest among certain classes. Self-organized groups on Facebook, WhatsApp and systems like iNaturalist with thousands of participants are mostly ignored by public-funded research and education institutions in India. While these have done a great deal for education, these internet platforms are without problems. There have been cases of opportunistic prospecting for new species and there are many who indulge in what has been called “helicopter research”. The National Biodiversity Act was created to protect against it but much of it is unimplementable, given the forces involved in making laws, and the poverty of expertise in the bureacracy. Fortunately for ordinary Indian citizens, the constitution says it is the fundamental duty of every citizen “to develop the scientific temper” and that should in theory keep us safe.

When Carl Linnaeus established the system of binomial nomenclature, he believed that every species had been created by god and that there must be a finite number of them. The idea that species were created by a god effectively ended in 1859 with the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Today, it is rather unfortunate that most biology teachers avoid debate on creation and evolution that would require the questioning of religion and tradition. The study of life forms around you is an active form of learning and we should re-examine any passively received ideas we may have.

Now the study of insects is certainly not limited to giving them a binomial name. That is just the first step, an aid to allow people to study and compare notes on what they think is the same entity. Learning more about the life of the insect on your own can be incredibly challenging and also very thrilling. This is an area where ordinary people have an edge over museum specialists in far-away locations. Specimen identification based on reference collections often relies on the forms of adult insects, often in damaged and discoloured conditions. In the vast majority, the immature stages are completely unknown. There are an infinite number of ways in which one can examine insects and what they do. There is no shortage of them and they are endlessly fascinating in the diversity of form and habits. They are the most significant herbivores on the planet and have altered the way plants live. Their study can have applications in other fields – people have studied them to make computers more reliable, systems more resilient, looked at their colors and structures for inspired applications in chemistry and physics. Being easy indicators of ecology, they are indicators of changes around us, and yet we have a studied ignorance of these – the smaller majority – of life forms around us.