Welcome to Insects are Fairies, a summer entomology series. Together, we’ll study the mysteries of the wild world and ourselves through the lens of our co-evolutionary history with insects.
So, why are we obsessed with insects again? Arguably the most successful animal group, insects represent over half of all known multicellular species. They have survived 5 mass extinctions. They were the first to conquer flight, and have shaped evolution of all other animal species to come after them. Compared to insects, we are babes in the woods, with the first of our kind appearing on the map just 300,000 years ago, in generous estimates.
Insects clocked in 480 million years ago, and never clocked out. Their emergence coincided with the dawn of angiosperms (aka, flowering plants). Together, the coevolutionary relationship between plants and insects have built everything we’ve ever known as a species on Earth. We have a lot to learn from these six-legged, single-headed, exoskeleton-ed, freaky-deaky (sometimes kinky) little creatures.
And what group of insects represents 10% of all known living organisms? You know it’s Lepidoptera, darling. The moths and butterflies. The latter could be the It-Girl of all insects. So showy, charming, dainty, and vibrantly colorful that even those who detest other kinds of insects will swoon over a pumpkin-and-black-striped monarch, or a buttery-yellow, midnight blue-black swallowtail perched on a porch railing, resting its wings. Slender, sleek antennae and thorax/abdomen. All light and love, they navigate by the sun. Some, like the Swallowtail butterflies, have eyes on their penis (M) and booty (F). Like the archetypal heartthrob DJ with mirrors on his/her/their ceiling, you could say they like to watch.
When we fall in love, or feel nervous-excited about something, we say we ”have butterflies”. The magical flutter of energy instinctively matches the movement of their wings in a way that AI could never understand, but all of us in living, breathing bodies always will. It’s also hard to imagine what our love rituals would look like without flowers. From the courting stage, “just because”, during marriage ceremony, or saying goodbye at the end of a loved one’s life. All these flowers we celebrate love with are angiosperms, the invention of these insect fairies.
In terms of reputation, the moths (also members of Lepidoptera) are like a goth bestie to the Barbie butterflies. They prefer to come out at night, navigating by the moon and stars as opposed to sunlight; they have fuzzy antennae and bodies; and they usually prefer to tuck themselves into the background, like a wallflower. Exceptions exist, like the luna moths, cecropia moths, and other vibrant species that boast color, size, and contrast to rival the most popular butterflies. Even so, their aesthetic is distinctively “alt”, giving rise to the ranks of queer folks with moth tattoos, among whom I can count myself.
In the introduction to Moths & Caterpillars of the North Woods by Jim Sogaard, I had to re-read this sentence a few times to make sure I had it right: “No exclusively local (endemic) species is known in the North Woods (upper WI, MI, and MN)”. That means that each species of moth, at the porch light or fluttering around on evening walks and garden chores, each one of them migrates to complete its life cycle.
This isn’t true for some butterflies, notably the Giant swallowtail, the mourning cloak, the red-spotted purple, and about 8 more, but overwhelmingly, Lepidoptera are a migratory bunch. The difference between moths and butterflies and other migratory species we typically think about like birds, however, is that most of these will not make a return flight. The famed Monarch butterfly does, on its trek from Mexico to Canada - but it is famous for it because most don’t. Their paper-thin wings and delicate bodies make use of prevailing winds to fly further, faster, with less energy expended, but even the most ideal conditions will wear a moth or butterfly to shreds. Therefore, these daring fairies sacrifice it all for the next generation, who will do the same for the next.
The Monarch is a well-known symbol of the movement against deportation terror. “Migration is natural/La migración es natural” is a battle cry against the displacement of immigrant workers, children, and asylum seekers. While people many generations removed from their family history of immigration tend to think of their ancestors’ stories as marvelous tales of epic bravery and endurance, too many in this country look at those facing the same or unimaginably worse risks as somehow less-than, or inferior, to their own migratory ancestors. I’m looking at white Americans here, specifically. It’s no secret that men, women, and children are being locked away in concentration camps in this country every day, and are dying as a result at an unprecedented rate.
No matter what propaganda is used to make people accept and believe that this is okay, that forced detainment and the abuse that follows is warranted because “they broke the law”, the truth will always exist. The truth, evident in nearly every lineage of human survival, is that traveling great distances, risking life and limb to protect yourself and loved ones from climate and societal disaster - that is brave, and it is precisely how species like moths and butterflies survived multiple mass extinctions already.
The ability to move to a place where you can survive, while taking your culture and community with you - that has been the way of human kind for the vast majority of our evolution. Only within the last 100 years did immigration become a crime - in 1929 in America, with Section 1325. How gullible are the ignorant, who internalize arbitrary and impermanent laws as justification for death and suffering? Before 1929, people could move a few or a hundred miles on either side of the border with no issue. Before colonization of North America, thousands of Native American peoples migrated according to the seasons every year.
There is ample evidence of migration in ancient humans consistently throughout the world, proven by the shifting isotopic signatures in their bones. People have been found far from where they grew up, or having spent a significant amount of time somewhere else. It is not crazy to think that outlawing this essential function of survival, especially during times of climate crisis and upheaval, is futile at best. At its worst, it is cruel and unusual punishment that generates profit for private corporations, who get paid per captured human that their detention centers receive.
Even if that’s not enough to stoke your rage into action, consider the environmental impact. Thousands of biologists and ecologists have spoken out about the restriction of movement and access that animals suffer at the border wall between Mexico and the US, including the endangered Mexican black bear.
While it wouldn’t be considered immigration by today’s standards and borders, immigration has had a large part in shaping of my life story - in that my life began with a cross-country move as a newborn from California, my father’s home state, to Illinois, my mother’s. My mom would often quote a cigarette commercial from the 90’s: “We’ve come a long way, baby”. My childhood in Illinois was as beautiful and painful as anyone’s. With one absent parent and one addicted parent, my grandparents did more than any grandparent should have to, until they couldn’t. I survived teenage years, and by the time I gradated high school, I knew my life there had run its course.
At 22, with a Monarch butterfly pendant around my neck, I bought a ford F150 for $1k. I loaded up my dingo dog and went on a summer-long volunteer/WWOOF tour of farms throughout the Midwest. My route had me going from northern Illinois, up through Wisconsin, into the UP, and down through Michigan. However, about a month into my trip, I fell hard and fast for a farm boy with a big red beard and a flock of chickens. After an extended stay, I finished my route and returned in the fall to stay with him. That was in 2015, and since then I married that now-farm-man. We have an amazing kid together. I have found the most incredible friends. Truly, most of all the best things in my life happened after my “migration” to Wisconsin.
If this had all taken place closer to the southern or northern border of the United States, it might not have happened. The 309 miles that I crossed to end up here barely even register, but there are those who’ve traveled less distance who were detained, deported, or abused for it. Most people, even those who are sympathetic with the current plight of undocumented immigrants in the US, do not think twice about hopping on a plane or going on a road trip. They cross state and country borders with ease, unable to even imagine the total risk that others have to live with to do the same.
Here are some writing prompts for you all who want to explore this topic more within yourselves:
In this time where voluntary immigration and asylum-seeking is punished, while forced evacuation and colonization of indigenous land is funded by the billions - where do you stand on universal human rights vs citizenship?
Do you feel you have the right to be where you are? Why or why not?
What does it mean to belong to a place?
Where in your lineage did immigration play a role in the outcome of your life?
What would a better world look like, in terms of immigration?
Finally, please support orgs doing important work to support immigrants in your community. In Milwaukee, we have Voces de la Frontera. In West Bend, we have Casa Guadalupe. If you don’t know who’s doing this work in your area, find out. Now is the time to be brave like the butterflies and moths, strive for that better world with the one little life we have, and sacrifice comfort and ignorance for the promise of liberated future generations.
RESOURCES
https://wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterfly
https://www.housedigest.com/2105144/butterfly-species-dont-migrate-how-to-support-in-winter/
EXTRORDINARY INSECTS by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
MOTHS & CATERPILLARS OF THE NORTH WOODS by Jim Sogaard
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47157-Lepidoptera
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/