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Natural Histories: Beetles

Beetles

BBC Radio 4 - Natural Histories, Beetles

Brett Westwood explores how beetles have influenced arts and science. From 2015

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 BBC Audio in Bristol : Andrew Dawes
Revised repeat - first broadcast in a longer form on 27th October 2015

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