With Valentine’s Day not far away, the word on many a mind is love. We all know what can happen when two people meet in our world, but what about the world of…insects?
Have you ever stumbled across a pair of butterflies linked together and attempting to fly or a pair of walking sticks intertwined, and wondered what these curious displays are about?
Survey of the Color Forms of the Southern Twostriped Walkingstick (Phasmatodea: Areolatae: Pseudophasmatidae: Pseudophasmatinae: Anisomorphini), With Notes on Its Range, Habitats, and Behaviors by OV Conle, FH Hennemann, and AT Dossey is an interesting source for a glimpse into the walkingstick’s elusive search for a mate hidden alone or in a cluster of walkingsticks amid sandy grounds, tree trunks, and palmetto fronds.
For a full-text view of this and other fascinating articles about the “love lives” of the insect world, search BioOne 
.
By Christine Fary
Creepy!
There’s another great one itching to be checked out in time for Valentines Day: Sex on Six Legs : Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World. If the tale of two walking sticks caught your imagination, you’ll find this a fascinating followup. Not to fear: there’s less creepy voyeurism here than intriguing exploration of buggy behavior. For more details, visit Andersen Library Catalog Record
Well I could have predicted this. I mean is nothing scared any more (oops, “sacred”). “Respect for diversity” has morffed into this transmogrifying apotheosis, miscegenating acrost forbidden boarders, I mean really, it all seems “species-ous,” get it, people should stay with their own kink (oops, ” kind”). “Next thing, you know, people will be wanting to, and all that.” It seems sik! [sic].
Still, valid lessons can be learned! (1) The “interdisciplinary” approach can join entomological “insect love” with Western literary tradition, as when Chris Marlowe, Renaissance poet, wroat: “our vegetable love / grows larger than centuries, and as slow.” (2) Plus as for protective coloring, those walking stix connecting right in our midst, whoo new, under our noses but unseen to us, can only echo with minorities doing their own thong (oops, “thing”) out of their “closets” so to speak (it’s not just “boy meets girl” as said) but unnoticed by the vanilla default population. (3) Finally, that dismal image of “connected” butterflies attempting simultaneous airborne transportation, can onley warn us of an early instance of the dangers of–that’s right, multitasking!… So happi Valentine’s day with propriate prereservations.