Beetles in Art, Myths and Society

By Patrice Bouchard And Arthur V. Evans
Published on February 6, 2015
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Photo by Insectarium de Montréal/Robert Beaudoin

Humans may think they rule the world, but it’s beetles that really dominate it. In The Book of Beetles, editor Patrice Bouchard goes in-depth about these creatures that make up a quarter of the world’s animals. With 400,000 known species, these insects are about as abundant as they are interesting. This excerpt, which explains beetles’ effects on culture, art, history and present day, is from the section “Beetles and Society.”

Beetles In Art, Myth and Society

Beetles have long occupied prominent places in our mythologies and in arts and crafts. The Sacred Scarab (Scarabaeus sacer) is the best-known beetle of mythology. Images of scarabs commonly appeared in funerary art and hieroglyphs. Scarabs carved in stone bore religious inscriptions from the Book of the Dead and were placed in tombs to ensure the immortality of the soul.

Artists have depicted beetles in all manner of media. Fireflies have long appeared in Chinese and Japanese art. One of the most notable examples of beetles in art is the watercolor of the European Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus) by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer in 1505. In the 1920s, the French artist Eugène Séguy created a famous series of art deco insect portfolios that included many striking beetles. Craftsmen use the durable body parts of beetles to make jewelry or adorn ornate pieces of furniture and wall coverings. South American indigenous artisans use the elytra of the giant Euchroma gigantea (Buprestidae) for necklaces and other decorative pieces. Today in parts of Mexico and Central America, a zopherid beetle popularly known as the Maquech, or Ma’kech (Zopherus chilensis), is decorated with brightly colored glass beads, fixed to a short chain tether, and pinned to clothing as a reminder of an ancient Yucatán legend.

Beetles As Delicacies

Beetles and their grubs are an important part of human diets around the world. In Southeast Asia, grubs of the Red Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) and Asiatic Rhinoceros Beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) are roasted and eaten as delicacies. The Chinese collect giant water scavengers (Hydrophilidae) and remove the head and appendages before frying them in oil or soaking them in brine. The Aborigines of Australia collect large, nut-flavored longhorn (Cerambycidae) larvae (witchetty grubs) from rotten logs and roast them. Even in America, a country that has not embraced entomophagy, there is a popular line of insect-stuffed lollipops.

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