Little Creatures:
APPRECIATING INSECTS AND TINY CRITTERS THAT RUN THE WORLD
A community celebration featuring art and poetry to honor insects and other invertebrates who make life possible for all of us.
August 12 - September 28, 2023
Boulder Public Library Canyon Gallery
“If humanity depends so completely on these little creatures that run the earth, they also provide us with an endless source of scientific exploration and naturalistic wonder.”
E.O. Wilson – (The Little Things that Run the World)
Whether you love them or hate them, your life depends on insects. Insects, spiders, and other tiny creatures are the mostly invisible frontline workforce that provide all of us with essential goods and services–food, clean air and water, waste removal, and natural pest control. The ecosystems they inhabit keep us safer by reducing the risks of floods and wildfires. Thanks to insects, we live in a beautiful, colorful and fragrant world.
But insects are in trouble. And it’s mostly due to our actions. Join our community in exploring how our perceptions about insects are contributing to insect decline and how we can take action together to save insects, and ourselves.
Meet Some Creatures
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The Beautiful Ones
Butterflies may be beautiful, but other insects give them a run for their money
The 15 Most Beautiful Insects in the World
Beauty of Extinct and Endangered Insects
Photo credit: Efrain Leal Escalera
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The Bizarre and Macabre
Insects can appear other-wordly and even the more "normal" looking can have some very strange behaviors
Beautiful wasp zombifies cockroach
This Fungus Turns Insects Into Zombies
Zombie caterpillar controlled by voodoo wasps
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The Arms Race
Millions of years of competition leads to never-ending defenses and countermoves
Citrus Psyllids Bribe Ants With Strings Of Candy Poop
WARNING: Aposematism Explained
Beetles advertise defenses with brilliant color, noxious odor
Birds learn to avoid plants that host dangerous insects
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The Acrobats
Invertebrates are incredible flyers, jumpers and swimmers. We are still discovering how they do it
Extraordinary Portraits of Insects in Flight
The secret to the dragonfly’s backwards flight
7 Spectacular Moths in Slow Motion!
Photo credit: Azim Khan Ronnie
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The Co-Conspirators
Complex relationships with other insects, plants and fungi result in surprising behaviors
How Ants and Aphids Help Each Other
How Bees Can See the Invisible
Better Together: Relationships Between Plants and Insects
How Flowers and Bees Evolved to Meet Each Other’s Needs
Photo credit: Oleg Serkiz
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The Hunters and the Hunted
Insects live dangerously. Eat or be eaten... or both?
Bug Hunters: Insects that hunt insects
Diving Beetle: an Impressive Underwater Hunter
Tiger beetles: fierce hunters, fast movers -
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The Masters of Disguise
See them or not, they're there. Tricks and behaviors to disappear into the background
Australian Walking Stick Insects Are Three Times Weirder Than You Think
How Insects Hide in Plain Sight
Amazing Insect Camouflage in Nature
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The Explorers
Insects can travel great distances. How and why do they do it?
Dragonfly migration explained for the first time ever
How ants and beetles remember their way home
High Above, Insects Travel On Sky Superhighways
Flying insects tell tales of long-distance migrations
Photo credit: Nagarajan Kanna
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The Frenemies
Mate, predator or both? Are you raising your own young or some imposter's?
So ... Sometimes Fireflies Eat Other Fireflies
Kidnapper Steal Other Ants' Babies - And Brainwash Them
Spiders disguise themselves as ants
Photo credit: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
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Underground Metropolis
More species live underground than above ground. An amazing world is beneath our feet
Leafcutter Ants are Farmers Who Grow Fungi
Photo credit: Anita Gould
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Submerged Secret Worlds
Insects inhabit a complex and dangerous underwater world
This Is Why Water Striders Make Terrible Lifeguards
Backswimmer Insects Drag Prey Into the Upside Down
Nature's Scuba Divers: How Beetles Breathe Underwater
Superhydrophobic Diving Flies of Mono Lake
Photo credit: Dave Huth
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It’s Complicated
Like everything else they do, invertebrate courtship, mating, and parenthood has some weird variations
Healthy Insect Relationships: Insect Courtship
The Curious Do’s and Don’ts of Insect Dating Behavior
©2023 Little Creatures Insect Art Exhibit | All rights reserved