Excerpts from The Voyage of the Beetle

                                         

 

                                         Meeting Charles Darwin
                                        (from page 1)

  

   

           "Charles Darwin and I first met under a rock. I was dreaming of sweet juicy rosebuds one sunny May morning in 1831, when a rude rustling of leaves and a dazzling shaft of light awakened me. An enormous face, framed by fly-away red hair, loomed above me. An immense hand came down. I struggled, scrambling and squirming, but I could scarcely unfold my wings, and I feared I was lost. An enormous brown eye peered at me through curled fingers.

    "'What a beautiful specimen of the English Cetonia aurata, the rose chafer beetle,' murmured the giant who held me. 'But--could it be that she's blushing?'

    "I drew myself up with dignity. Really! To imagine I would be flattered at being called 'beautiful' by such a large, ungainly two-legged individual! But it was clear that he could recognize beauty when he saw it, and I stopped struggling long enough for mutual introductions."

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Clue Number 3 and the Cycle of Life (from pages 28-29)   

    "One of the most important jobs of beetles is to help
sustain life. One of them told us about her work one day
as we were walking through the rain forest. Charles had
found a wonderfully fragrant fungus and was carrying it back to our camp. (Well, to be accurate, I thought the fungus smelled and tasted like ambrosia. Charles called its fragrance 'odious.') Attracted by the odor, a Strongylus alighted on the fungus and began to munch delightedly. She was hardly willing to interrupt her meal to talk to me, but when I told her about the mystery of mysteries, she was intrigued.

    "'You can call me Lulu,' she offered. 'One of my family's jobs is to help make soil from certain fungi that live in the rainforest,' she continued. "The fungi feed on fallen leaves, breaking the leaves down into soil that nourishes the trees. We beetles spread the spores of the fungi to fresh piles of leaves. We also participate in the cycle of life-from death by eating the fungi and turning them into soil as well.'

"Lulu continued, 'Our small size and modest coloring help us hide from birds, rodents, and lizards that prey upon us. But not far from here you'll find some really nasty beetles--gaudy, arrogant, vicious creature who will make a meal of anything that moves, including their smaller relatives like me.

    "Lulu shuddered, then sighed. 'Well, it takes all kinds, I suppose. Just as we control the fungi, the carnivorous beetles keep our population in balance. Otherwise, the whole forest might be overrun and eaten by one kind of creature or another.'

    "I looked up from my conversation with Lulu to see Charles gazing into the distance, lost in thought. I found out why when I read his journal notes that night. There are certain beetles that enjoy an 'odious' fungus in England. The English fungus and beetles are both quite different from the South American ones, but they do the same kind of work in both places.

    "Lulu had provided us with another important clue:

    In any given environment, each living thing has a special role to play in the intricate cycle of life. In different places, similar functions in the cycle of life are carried on by different organisms."

 

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