Addendum to a bug's life.

At first I was concerned about the environmental effects of the Bug Catcher, but I asked a lot of questions and discovered that there is no shortage of bugs! Most adult bugs, beetles, insects, butterflies, etc., live only three days to three weeks. Their eggs, larva, and pupae, remain underground and perpetuate at a hasty rate. Many of the mature insects do not even eat in their adult life. Like Salmon, they live, reproduce, and die.

Ronald Cave, writing for National Geographic (January 2001) affirms what entomologists have discovered, "that it is not the collecting of insects out of the wild that adversely affects their populations, but the destruction of their habitats and host-plants (the plant an insect species requires to reproduce). Leading environmentalists and entomologists agree that insect collecting can actually aid in the preservation of insect species by offering an economic incentive in which this 'sustainable rainforest crop' thrives... regulated beetle collecting by local people - and in time, beetle farming - could actually help slow the process (of loss of habitat)."

Of course, as knowledge and education should do, I discovered much more about my true inner self. I caught myself thinking how dreadful it was to have trapped such incredibly beautiful and fragile butterflies and damsel flies... only to cringe looking at the likes of the rhino beetles, mantis, and lumpy leaf bugs. How fickle my heart is!