Insects, insects everywhere! Insects in verses

 Insects in verses

Insects, insects everywhere! 

If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months. - E. O. Wilson

Dr Abe V Rotor

Precariously perched, oh Dragonfly;
     your doom awaits below;
a leap away or two, and time ticks,
     for there's no tomorrow.


Bird droppings, these caterpillars assume;
     to deceive their enemies;
until they emerge - long secret preserved,
     mystery to the scientists.


Anona fruit borers feast in numbers -
     their survival, yet their doom;
when too many, and fruits are few,
     and there's not enough room.

Bagworm, turtle in the insect world;
carries its house as it roams around,
bit by bit builds a beautiful mansion,
only to abandon it in the final round.


Green like a leaf and slim like snake,
      this caterpillar bold and free;
Pavlov could be wrong to insects,
     and Charles Darwin in mimicry.


Cicada, it's the male shrilling in the trees,
     love call to the females on the run;
then a would-be bride or two come close
     to Romeo and Caruso rolled into one.


Cotton Stainer - guess what is the first dye,
     but its saliva in the cotton boll;
ever wonder how designs of fabric are made,
     but stains in colors, hues and all.

Oriental cockroach - filthiest of all insects,
     yet catholic a cleaning habit it got;
of millions of germs it carries and spreads,
     it too, disposes more through its gut.


Termites, how canny, deceitful;
     disguised as coy and shy;
yet could bring a house crushing
     down amidst fear and cry.


Nature's executioner - preying mantis;
     killer by instinct, pious in look,
yet friendly to gardens and farms,
     devouring pest in every nook.

Psylla lice - the scourge of ipil-ipil trees,
     epidemic to the imported varieties,
wiping out plantations in the seventies,
     save the indigenous lowly species.



A butterfly makes a garden
     with sunrise in union,
plants to bloom to carry on
     the next generation.

Wasp pollinator - enigma of procreation
     of a fig by co-evolution;
by rule, one cannot live without the other
     in Nature's strictest order.

Stinkbug, how divergent its life is
     with inviting coloration,
repugnant odor, to attract and repel,
     for freedom and admiration.


Tiger moth, remote mimicry
     of a dreadful brute;
if threat is preserved this way
     what then is truth?


Rhinoceros beetle, fierce looking male,
     all bluff in a dangerous world;
the female coy and naïve her strategy,
     both stronger than the sword.



Leafhoppers - minute yet destructive
     in countless number;
sipping the vitality of plants
     turning them green to amber.
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"How still the woods seem from here, yet how lively a stir the hidden animals are making; digging, gnawing, biting, eyes shining, at work and play, getting food, rearing young, roving through the underbrush, climbing the rocks, wading solitary marshes, tracing the banks of the lakes and streams! Insect swarms are dancing in the sunbeams, burrowing in the ground, diving, swimming,—a cloud of witnesses telling Nature's (creation)." - John Muir