Beetle Life Underfoot

Butsolitude is only a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetlelife underfoot; every choice is a world made new for the chosen.

BarbaraKingsolver, Prodigal Summer

Hmmm, perhaps it is pasttime for us to catch up on the protection side of our thunderous impact on thenatural world.

The quotation at thehead of this post is my favourite opening line to a novel by one of my all-timefavourite authors. There is so much wisdom and insight packed into it that I couldwrite pages on the embedded meaning.

It came to mind today asI was looking at the caterpillar photograph, at the top of this post, which Itook yesterday while on a nature hike. I looked it up online and determinedthat it is a White-Marked Tussock Mothcaterpillar.

I have not paid muchattention to caterpillars in my ramblings in pursuit of winged wonders. Butperhaps I should do so. The exquisite markings of this caterpillar and thefeathery hairs in which it is covered make it quite striking. Interestingly,the moth that it will eventually become is a rather nondescript off-white colourthat lacks distinguishing marks.

I occasionally get thesereminders of what I might be missing as I march along with tunnel vision. Howmuch beetle life underfoot is passing unnoticed as the relative thunder of myfootsteps sends miniature creatures scuttling for cover?

I could easily havemissed this Lance-tipped Darner if ithad not taken wing when I walked past its original perch. This particular speciesof Darner often perches low in thegrass effectively camouflaged and hidden from view. I had to search for aminute or two to locate this one even though I saw where it dropped down.

Darners are one of the largest dragonfliesand a personal favourite of mine. But how many have I walked past oblivious totheir presence because I was simply was not paying attention to the hiddenworld where they live?

You would think it wouldbe hard to miss this swarm of WhirligigBeetles frolicking about on the surface of a pond. But I did not noticethem until I was at the edge of the pond scanning for dragonflies. They weregoing about their frantic business in plain view but camouflaged by their sizeand their dark colour.

There is a wholeuniverse of beetle life underfoot in every acre of meadow or marsh or woodland.I have no doubt been thunder to it countless times.

It is not too much astretch to suggest that beetle lifeunderfoot is a metaphor for how wilfully unaware we too often are of ourimpact on nature. We are the creature with the most potential to both protectand to harm the natural world. We have done more than our share of harm. Wehave a lot of catching up to do on the protecting side of the equation.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

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