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Beetles represent twenty percent of all living species. Brett Westwood explores how they have influenced arts and science around the world. From 2015

Beetles, in the group of insects known as Coleoptera or 'sheathed wing', make up roughly one quarter of all known living species on the planet, that's about 400,000 species. It's perhaps not surprising that beetles are at the heart of the many ways we take inspiration from nature.

"Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Your house is all burned and your children are gone....."

This nursery rhyme is one of many across Europe that demonstrates our close relationship with ladybirds. Peter Marren, leading wildlife author, explains the story behind the rhyme and why the ladybird in folklore is seen as 'Our Lady's Bird' as well as the poem Clock-o'-clay by the poet John Clare. The beetles collection at the Natural History Museum reveals the gold and silver beetles of the Cloud Forests of Costa Rica collected by Walter Rothschild in 1894. Scarab beetles found in Ancient Egypt had a huge impact on both the ecology and culture of the region and we find out why they were revered as sacred. In the Amazon region, the Shaur tribe incorporated beetle wings into ceremonial dress to enhance their prowess as warriors.

In this programme we celebrate the beetle and the role it plays as both an exotic and mundane creature whose biology is so extraordinary that some scientists now wish to copy it through the new science of Biomimetics.

With all their varied forms and irresistible structural colours, beetles may yet prove as invaluable in our future as they have been in our past.

Original Producer : Sarah Pitt

Archive producer for 91热爆 Audio in Bristol : Andrew Dawes
Revised repeat - first broadcast in a longer form on 27th October 2015

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 19 Jun 2022 06:35

Max Barclay

Max Barclay
Max Barclay is an entomologist and the Collection Manager for beetles at the , London. He manages the 10 million specimen collection, which dates back to the voyages of Charles Darwin, Captain Cook and beyond and is visited by hundreds of external scientists per year. He has had work published in over 50 scientific papers and manages our team of beetle curators.


A life-long naturalist, he began his career as a volunteer at Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. He believes in maintaining the relevance of natural history and in enthusing the next generation to understand and engage with the natural world.

Andrew Parker

Andrew Parker
Dr Andrew Parker is a Research Fellow at the . His main research involves biomimetics - learning from nature to improve industrial products and businesses.

At the Museum he specialises in colour, particularly structural colour, and water management surfaces in nature. He is also interested in the origin and evolution of vision and visual systems, with special reference to the Cambrian period. Andrew鈥檚 taxonomic interest lies with Myodocopa ostracods ("seed-shrimps").

Andrew has a PhD from Macquarie University, Australia and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

Dr Michael Bartl

Dr Michael Bartl
Dr Michael Bartl is an associate professor of materials and physical chemistry, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Utah. He is the scientific co-founder of , and a Deputy Editor for .

He is beginning a new role as the executive director of the Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bartl was the recipient of a 鈥淒uPont Young Professorship鈥, and was named a 鈥淏rilliant 10鈥 researcher by Popular Science magazine in 2010 and a Scialog Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 2013.

Joanna Hardy

Joanna Hardy
Joanna Hardy is an independent fine jewellery consultant, conducting masterclasses and lectures worldwide. She is a published author with her books 鈥楥ollect Contemporary Jewelry鈥, and 鈥楨merald鈥 both published by Thames and Hudson and is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph Luxury Magazine.

She curates Contemporary Jewellery selling exhibitions, is an accredited lecturer, a Freeman of the City of London, a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths Hall, a Fellow of the and is a regular jewellery specialist on the . 聽

Dr Richard Hofstetter

Dr Richard Hofstetter
Dr Richard Hofstetter is an Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University. His research focuses on forest health issues related to insects, plant-insect interactions, predator-prey dynamics, biological control, bark beetle biology, bioacoustics, and mutualistic interactions.

In North American Forests, bark beetles chew through a hundred million acres of forests, eventually killing the trees.听On hearing a sound recording of bark beetles inside a tree, Dr Hofstetter was inspired to see if .听

Peter Marren

Peter Marren
Peter Marren is a writer, one-time journalist and all-round naturalist. His book聽聽won the silver medal of the聽聽and he is the author of the New Naturalist conservation volume, simply titled聽. His latest book,聽, about butterflies, is to be published next spring.

He also writes obituaries for聽, conservation news for聽, formerly has a column in聽聽and is regular contributor to聽, which includes his famous column of biting wit, Twitcher in the Swamp.

Professor Victoria Rivers

Professor Victoria Rivers
Professor Victoria Rivers is Professor Emerita in Design at the University of California, Davis.

She is engaged in textiles research ranging from the producing and exhibiting of dyed and embellished textile artworks to researching and publishing subjects on South and Southeast Asian textiles, to curating exhibitions.

She has been the recipient of an , a Council for the International Exchange of Scholars Indo-American Fellowship for research in India, and was a cultural ambassador through the US.Department of State, Artists in the Embassies program in conjunction with her work in an exhibition at the US Embassy in Accra, Ghana, where she lectured and taught workshops in November 2003.

Dr Tom Turpin

Dr Tom Turpin
Dr Tom Turpin is a Professor of Entomology at Purdue University, Indiana. He has taught a variety of courses from pest management to insects in prose and poetry and theatre.

He started the and an insect knowledge quiz bowl for students called the聽Linnaean Games. He writes a regular popular column on insects for newspapers entitled 鈥淥n 6 Legs鈥, 聽and transcription, and is the author of two popular books and one textbook on insects.

Broadcasts

  • Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:00
  • Mon 2 Nov 2015 21:00
  • Sun 19 Jun 2022 06:35

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