Entomology, Department of
Date of this Version
11-2017
Citation
Le Tirant, S. and B. C. Ratcliffe. 2017 Georges Brossard, an advocate for insects. Scarabs 85: 10-17.
Abstract
People are strange. They’ve built botanical gardens for plants, planetariums for understanding the planets, zoos for large animals, aviaries for birds, and aquariums for fish, but nothing for insects! It’s as though this class of animals doesn’t count. And yet, of all the creatures on Earth, insects are some of the most important. They are food sources, garbage collectors, decomposers, producers, controllers and pollinators. And what do people do for them in return? We hunt them down with insecticides, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. It’s time to reconcile humans with insects, a very classy class. I’m going to build a temple to honour insects, and I’m going to call it the Insectarium.
— Georges Brossard, 1978