Exploring the world beneath our feet
Minibeasts, Alan Henderson’s new book, not only contains wondrously detailed photographs of insects, it is also a lesson in how they are the key to the planet’s survival, says .
When four-year-old Alan Henderson stumbled upon an epic battle between two unstoppable forces, the experience sparked a lifelong fascination.
It happened during a family visit to an aunt, when, bored by the adults’ chatter, the small boy wandered into the back garden to explore, and came across a to-the-death battle between a praying mantis and the honeybee it was struggling to eat alive.
“From that time on, I became intrigued with the small world and I started looking closer. The fascination stayed with me,” the insect expert adds, recalling how childhood friends, who used to “go around with me looking for bugs”, later drifted off and did other things.
But Henderson’s fascination with invertebrates, or minibeasts, has remained. He has just published a new book on the subject, to heighten public awareness of the global importance of these tiny creatures.
The word ‘minibeast’ isn’t a scientific term, but a commonly used name referring to invertebrates: insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, woodlice, crayfish, crabs, snails and slugs, among others.
Mini-beasts are crucial to the functioning of the planet, in terms of pollination and the food chain, for example. Without them, the world as we know it would come to a halt.
They are an incredibly valuable resource, in terms of science, he says. The invertebrate world is a wealth of biological accomplishment in a wide range of areas, from biomechanics and engineering to navigation.
Minibeasts have overcome problems of mobility, can navigate with incredible precision, and hold chemicals and compounds within their bodies which could revolutionise our way of life
Science has woken up to this. Many robotics teams, for example, are focusing on cockroaches, modelling their capacity to move rapidly and effectively over difficult terrain. Researchers at the University of California are developing search-and-rescue robots based on American cockroaches.
Robotic flight developers are creating miniature drones modelled on dragonflies, because their design has many advantages over fixed-wing helicopter designs.
Bioprospecting — the search for species from which medicinal drugs and other commercially useful compounds can be obtained — is also big business.
Research at the University of Buffalo is showing promising results in the treatment of muscular dystrophy, using spider venom. Elsewhere, research is taking place into the use of spider venom in the treatment of chronic pain and even erectile dysfunction.
A peptide in centipede venom may have the potential to be a more effective pain-killer than morphine, and the use of scorpion venom, combined with a fluorescent dye, can help in differentiating cancerous tumours from healthy brain tissues. Meanwhile, specialised, surgical adhesives are being developed based on slug mucus. Such adhesives may enable the closing of incisions and wounds in difficult-to-treat organs like the heart and liver.
And it all begins with these tiny creatures, says Henderson, who recalls how, throughout his childhood, the family playroom rapidly filled up with fish tanks and containers of different kinds.
I was always keeping insects and reptiles and lizards and snails.One of my brothers was into this with me and we had fish tanks and insect tanks full of scorpions and spiders and praying mantises and stick-insects
Alan studied scientific photography at college. He did a slideshow of his photographs of spiders, and the head lecturer told him that he’d found his niche in life.
He certainly had. After graduating with a degree in photography, and still in his early 20s, the young insect enthusiast set up his own MiniBeast Centre, before taking up a job as the Melbourne Museum’s coordinator of live exhibits.
“In 2004, we opened the Bugs Alive exhibition at the Melbourne Museum and it was one of the most popular exhibits in the museum. It’s still going today,” Henderson says, adding that he used his photography skills to create graphics for the crowds of people who visited and later for a book about the exhibition, Bugs Alive.
After 12 years with the museum, Henderson returned full-time to work at his Minibeasts Park in Kuranda, in North Queensland, one of the most biologically diverse regions of Australia.
“We breed them and work with film crews, who come from all over the world; the BBC recently came to film a nature documentary.
“We visit schools and take the animals into the classroom,” he says, adding that he also breeds hundreds of thousands of insects in a special area at his home.
“We supply them as pets and ship live insects and spiders throughout Australia and we supply zoos and museums with these animals,” he says, adding that he also works closely with a number of universities.
“We’re trying to foster an understanding of these incredible creatures,” he says, adding that he believes people don’t understand the crucial role played by mini-beasts, both in terms of the day-to-day functioning of the planet, and their potential to help the human race.
“They are just a misunderstood kind of animal,” he says.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to describe how valuable a particular insect is, because a lot of these animals do not have a direct benefit. However, because they feed into the ecosystem, as a group they have a cumulative effect, in terms of playing a role, which, down the chain is important.”
This becomes clear if you pull them out of the system, he warns.
“Others things are affected, which has a knock-on effect on our world down, the road.
"We don’t understand all these things fully, but it’s been found in certain areas, where pesticides wipe out predators, like spiders, the insect that the spider was eating ends up blooming in huge numbers and causing problems
“That’s because, when we take a certain species out of the chain, we lose the balance and something happens, as a result,” Henderson says.
Large numbers of minibeasts have already disappeared from that chain, he warns, so things are already out of balance.
“Although these critically important animals have survived for hundreds of millions of years, studies have revealed alarming trends in recent years, showing we’re losing some of our most important fauna at astonishing rates.” He points to one study at Stanford University, in the US, which has shown a 45% decline in invertebrate numbers over a 35-year period.
The reason is simple. “Scientists believe the decrease in invertebrates is due to two main factors: habitat loss and climate disruption on a global scale,” Henderson says.
