Wired.co.uk is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth ofAndré Latreille, a humble French entomologist who hasbeen credited as the father of modern entomology a title hejostles with Jean-Henri Fabre, William Kirby and Thomas Say for,depending on who you ask.
Latreille had a challenging career, having initially trained asa priest he was imprisoned a number of times for refusing to pledgeallegiance to the state. On one occasion, a bug that crawled intohis prison cell even saved him from a likely death sentence seehis biography below. He made significant contributions todescribing and documenting arthropods in various academic andmuseum roles in France.
To pay homage to this entomological luminary, Wired.co.uk haslaunched Bug Week, in which weexplore creepy-crawlies of all kinds. More than a million speciesof insects and 38,000 species of spiders have already beenidentified, and as many as 30 million more species are predicted toexist in the world. So numerous are creepy-crawlies that the totalbiomass of ants alone is estimated to be the same as the Earth'sentire human population. In short, it's very difficult to get awayfrom them.
From their extraordinary mating practices and role in spreadingdiseases to their potential as a human food source, we celebratethe humble bugs and critters that buzz, scuttle, bite and burrowaround us.