0:00:01.857,0:00:06.687
So people are more afraid of insects[br]than they are of dying.

0:00:07.127,0:00:08.056
(Laughter)

0:00:08.405,0:00:14.627
At least, according to a 1973 book [br]of lists survey which preceded all those

0:00:14.929,0:00:19.689
online best, worst, funniest lists[br]that you see today.

0:00:20.270,0:00:27.444
Only heights and public speaking exceeded[br]the six-legged as sources of fear.

0:00:27.884,0:00:31.460
And I suspect if you had[br]put spiders in there,

0:00:31.460,0:00:35.989
the combinations of insects and spiders[br]would have just topped the chart.

0:00:36.941,0:00:38.775
Now, I am not one of those people.

0:00:38.863,0:00:45.108
I really love insects.[br]I think they're interesting and beautiful,

0:00:45.108,0:00:47.204
and sometimes even cute.

0:00:48.111,0:00:49.946
And I'm not alone.[br]

0:00:49.981,0:00:54.905
For centuries, some of the greatest minds [br]in science from Charles Darwin

0:00:54.905,0:00:59.900
to E.O. Wilson have drawn inspiration [br]from studying some of the smallest

0:00:59.900,0:01:01.550
minds on earth.

0:01:02.900,0:01:04.386
Well, why is that?

0:01:04.386,0:01:07.149
What is that keeps us coming[br]back to insects?

0:01:08.240,0:01:12.457
Some of it, of course, is just the sheer[br]magnitude of almost everything about them.

0:01:12.457,0:01:15.206
They're more numerous than [br]any other kind of animal.

0:01:15.689,0:01:19.122
We don't even know how many species[br]of insects there are because new ones

0:01:19.122,0:01:21.103
are being discovered all the time.

0:01:21.568,0:01:24.726
There are at least a million,[br]maybe as many as 10 million.

0:01:25.469,0:01:29.253
This means that you could have an insect[br]of the month calendar

0:01:29.509,0:01:33.572
and not have to reuse a species [br]for over 80,000 years.

0:01:33.781,0:01:35.685
(Laughter)

0:01:36.660,0:01:38.239
Take that pandas and kittens!

0:01:38.471,0:01:40.073
(Laughter)

0:01:40.506,0:01:44.973
More seriously, insects are essential.[br]We need them.

0:01:45.669,0:01:49.849
It's been estimated that 1 out of every 3[br]bites of food is made possible

0:01:50.058,0:01:51.567
by a pollinator.

0:01:53.122,0:01:56.930
Scientist use insects to make fundamental[br]discoveries about everything

0:01:57.163,0:02:01.272
from the structure of our nervous systems,[br]to how our genes and DNA work.

0:02:02.492,0:02:04.290
But what I love most about insects

0:02:04.290,0:02:07.286
is what they can tell us[br]about our own behavior.

0:02:07.750,0:02:10.653
Insects seem like they do [br]everything that people do.

0:02:10.908,0:02:14.159
They meet, they mate, [br]they fight, they break up.

0:02:14.716,0:02:18.570
And they do so with what looks [br]like love or animosity.

0:02:19.530,0:02:24.790
But what drives their behaviors is really[br]different than what drives our own,

0:02:24.790,0:02:27.231
and that difference can be[br]really illuminating.

0:02:27.825,0:02:29.825
There's nowhere where [br]that's more true[br]

0:02:29.825,0:02:31.666
than when it comes [br]to one of our most

0:02:31.666,0:02:33.686
consuming interests --[br]sex.

0:02:34.313,0:02:37.935
Now, I will maintain and I think I can[br]defend what may seem like

0:02:37.961,0:02:39.400
a surprising statement.

0:02:40.954,0:02:44.088
I think sex in insects is more [br]interesting than sex in people.

0:02:44.320,0:02:45.783
(Laughter)

0:02:46.131,0:02:52.231
And the wild variety that we see makes us[br]challenge some of our own assumptions

0:02:52.231,0:02:54.955
about what it means to be male and female.

0:02:55.470,0:02:58.059
Of course, to start with, [br]a lot of insects[br]

0:02:58.059,0:03:00.319
don't need to have sex [br]at all to reproduce.

0:03:00.319,0:03:04.707
Female aphids can make little, tiny clones[br]of themselves without ever mating.

0:03:05.751,0:03:08.004
Virgin birth, right there.[br]On your rose bushes.

0:03:08.491,0:03:09.583
(Laughter)

0:03:11.366,0:03:16.061
When they do have sex, even their sperm[br]is more interesting than human sperm.

0:03:16.316,0:03:21.979
There are some kinds of fruit flies whose[br]sperm is longer than the male's own body.

0:03:21.979,0:03:26.370
And that's important because the males [br]use their sperm to compete.

0:03:27.090,0:03:31.060
Now, male insects do compete with weapons,[br]like the horns on these beetles.

0:03:31.710,0:03:35.797
But they also compete after [br]mating with their sperm.

0:03:36.726,0:03:41.876
Dragonflies and damselflies have penises[br]that look kind of like Swiss Army knives

0:03:41.876,0:03:43.738
with all of the attachments pulled out.

0:03:43.993,0:03:44.899
(Laughter)

0:03:46.106,0:03:51.377
They use these formidable devices like[br]like scoops, to remove the sperm

0:03:51.702,0:03:54.790
from previous males that [br]the female has mated with.

0:03:55.163,0:03:56.671
(Laughter)

0:03:56.909,0:03:59.347
So, what can we learn from this?

0:03:59.921,0:04:03.451
(Laughter)

0:04:05.540,0:04:11.508
Alright, it is not a lesson in the sense[br]of us imitating them or of them setting

0:04:11.693,0:04:13.992
an example for us to follow.

0:04:13.992,0:04:16.782
Which given this, is probably just as well.

0:04:17.265,0:04:20.835
And also did I mention sexual cannibalism[br]is rampant among insects?

0:04:20.863,0:04:22.751
So, no, that's not the point.

0:04:22.829,0:04:24.976
But what I think insects do,

0:04:24.976,0:04:30.965
is break a lot of the rules[br]that we humans have about the sex roles.

0:04:31.453,0:04:36.259
So people have this idea that nature[br]dictates kind of a 1950s sitcom version

0:04:36.747,0:04:38.851
of what males and females are like.

0:04:38.851,0:04:42.044
So that males are always [br]supposed to be dominant and aggressive,

0:04:42.044,0:04:43.963
and females are passive and coy.

0:04:43.963,0:04:45.644
But that's just not the case.

0:04:46.986,0:04:51.202
So for example, take katydids, which are[br]relatives of crickets and grasshoppers.

0:04:51.392,0:04:55.228
The males are very picky [br]about who they mate with

0:04:55.228,0:04:58.308
because they not only transfer[br]sperm during mating,

0:04:58.308,0:05:02.798
they also give the female[br]something called a nuptial gift.

0:05:02.798,0:05:06.499
You can see two katydids [br]mating in these photos.

0:05:06.499,0:05:10.507
In both panels, the male's the one on[br]the right and that sword like appendage

0:05:10.716,0:05:12.759
is the female's egg-laying organ.

0:05:13.317,0:05:19.770
The white blob is the sperm and the green[br]blob is the nuptial gift, and the male

0:05:19.770,0:05:24.601
manufactures this from his own body[br]and it's extremely costly to produce.

0:05:24.679,0:05:27.387
It can weigh up to a third [br]of his body mass.

0:05:27.693,0:05:30.343
I will now pause for a moment[br]and let you think about

0:05:30.343,0:05:34.603
what it would be like, if human men --[br]everytime they had sex

0:05:34.730,0:05:41.196
had to produce something that weighed[br]50, 60, 70 pounds.

0:05:41.528,0:05:44.407
(Laughter)

0:05:44.778,0:05:48.029
Okay, they would not be able [br]to do that very often.

0:05:49.455,0:05:51.628
And indeed, neither can the katydids.

0:05:52.092,0:05:59.615
And so what that means, is the katydid[br]males are very choosy about who they

0:05:59.615,0:06:01.124
offer these nuptial gifts to.

0:06:01.333,0:06:04.747
Now, the gift is very nutritious[br]and the female eats it during

0:06:04.747,0:06:06.117
and after mating.

0:06:06.227,0:06:08.804
So, the bigger it is, the better[br]off the male is because that means

0:06:09.033,0:06:12.888
more time for his sperm to drain into her[br]body and fertilize her eggs.

0:06:13.521,0:06:19.210
But it also means that the males are very[br]passive about mating, where as the females

0:06:19.210,0:06:23.081
are extremely aggressive and competitive,[br]in an attempt to get as many as these

0:06:23.252,0:06:25.899
nutritious nuptial gifts as they can.

0:06:26.062,0:06:29.939
So, it's not exactly a [br]stereotypical set of rules.

0:06:30.787,0:06:35.628
Even more generally though, males are [br]actually not all that important

0:06:35.791,0:06:37.787
in the lives of a lot of insects.

0:06:37.976,0:06:41.735
In the social insects --[br]the bees and wasps and ants

0:06:42.442,0:06:46.208
the individuals that you see everyday,[br]the ants going back and forth

0:06:46.322,0:06:50.198
to your sugar bowl, the honey bees [br]that are flitting from flower to flower.

0:06:50.371,0:06:52.461
All of those are always female.

0:06:53.300,0:06:57.708
People have had a hard time getting their[br]head around that idea for millennia.

0:06:58.010,0:07:03.397
The ancient Greeks knew that there was[br]a class of bees, the drones, that are

0:07:03.513,0:07:08.378
larger than the workers, although [br]they disapproved of the drones' laziness

0:07:08.401,0:07:11.470
because they could see that [br]the drones just hang around the hive

0:07:11.470,0:07:13.675
until the mating flight --[br]they're the males.

0:07:13.675,0:07:14.695
They hang around the hives until

0:07:14.695,0:07:15.702
the mating flight, but they don't

0:07:15.702,0:07:17.858
participate in gathering nectar or pollen.

0:07:18.004,0:07:21.876
The Greeks couldn't figure out [br]the drones sex, and part of the confusion

0:07:21.876,0:07:26.535
was that they were aware of the stinging[br]ability of bees, but they found it

0:07:26.542,0:07:29.828
difficult to believe that any animals [br]that bore such a weapon could

0:07:29.828,0:07:31.395
possibly be a female.

0:07:31.883,0:07:34.251
Aristotle tried to get involved as well.

0:07:34.739,0:07:38.895
He suggested, OK, well if the stinging[br]individuals are going to be the males,

0:07:39.104,0:07:42.981
then he got confused because that would [br]have meant that males were also taking

0:07:42.981,0:07:46.511
care of the young in the colony[br]and he seemed to think that would be

0:07:46.511,0:07:47.603
completely impossible.

0:07:47.973,0:07:53.174
He then concluded that bees had the organs[br]of both sexes in the same individual,

0:07:53.174,0:07:54.335
which is not that farfetched.

0:07:54.338,0:07:58.422
There are some animals that do that, but [br]he never really did get it figured out.

0:07:59.026,0:08:04.668
And you know, even today, my students[br]for instance call every animal they see

0:08:04.877,0:08:07.245
including insects, a male.

0:08:07.710,0:08:11.727
And when I tell them that the ferocious[br]army ant soldiers with their giant

0:08:11.982,0:08:18.089
jaws, used to defend the colony are all [br]always female, they seem to not

0:08:18.091,0:08:19.807
quite believe me.

0:08:20.081,0:08:20.968
(Laughter)

0:08:21.200,0:08:25.147
Certainly all of the movies --[br]Antz, Bee Movie

0:08:25.542,0:08:31.950
portray the main character in the social[br]insects as being male.

0:08:32.998,0:08:33.898
Well, what difference does this make?

0:08:33.898,0:08:35.021
I mean, these are movies.

0:08:35.021,0:08:35.841
They're fiction.

0:08:36.049,0:08:37.049
They have talking [br]animals in them,

0:08:37.049,0:08:38.663
what difference does it [br]make if they talk

0:08:38.663,0:08:39.634
like Jerry Seinfeld?

0:08:39.868,0:08:41.795
(Laughter)

0:08:42.027,0:08:46.784
I think it does matter and it's a problem[br]that actually is part of a much deeper

0:08:46.784,0:08:52.274
one that has implications for medicine,[br]and health and a lot of other aspects

0:08:52.274,0:08:53.271
of our lives.

0:08:53.823,0:08:57.112
You all know that scientists use [br]what we call model systems,

0:08:57.112,0:09:00.254
which are creatures --[br]white rats or fruit flies

0:09:00.579,0:09:05.270
that are kind of stand-ins for all other[br]animals including people.

0:09:05.409,0:09:09.199
And the idea is, that what's true[br]for a person will also be true

0:09:09.199,0:09:10.772
for the white rat.

0:09:11.098,0:09:13.419
By in large, that turns [br]out to be the case.

0:09:13.652,0:09:17.413
But you can take the idea [br]of a model system too far.

0:09:17.924,0:09:24.007
And what I think we've done, is use males,[br]in any species, as though they are

0:09:24.193,0:09:25.888
the model system.

0:09:26.213,0:09:29.626
The norm.[br]The way things are supposed to be.

0:09:29.858,0:09:34.618
And females as a kind of variant --[br]something special that you only study

0:09:34.734,0:09:36.638
after you get the basics down.

0:09:38.032,0:09:40.794
And so back to the insects.

0:09:40.794,0:09:44.858
I think what that means, is that people[br]could not see what was in front of them.

0:09:44.974,0:09:51.336
Because they assumed that the world's [br]stage was largely occupied by male players

0:09:51.545,0:09:55.306
and females would only have minor,[br]walk-on roles.

0:09:55.841,0:09:59.392
But when we do that,[br]we really miss out on a lot

0:09:59.392,0:10:00.949
of what nature is like.

0:10:01.715,0:10:08.611
And we can also miss out on the way[br]natural, living things incudling people

0:10:08.611,0:10:09.609
can very.

0:10:10.236,0:10:15.124
And I think that's why we've used males[br]as models in a lot of medical research,

0:10:15.124,0:10:19.338
something that we know now to be a problem[br]if we want the results to apply

0:10:19.733,0:10:22.032
to both men and women.

0:10:22.760,0:10:26.637
Well, the last thing I really love about[br]insects is something that a lot of people

0:10:26.637,0:10:28.533
find unnerving about them.

0:10:28.788,0:10:32.271
They have little, tiny brains with very [br]little cognitive ability the way

0:10:32.271,0:10:33.780
we normally think of it.

0:10:34.663,0:10:39.074
They have complicated behavior,[br]but they lack complicated brains.

0:10:40.049,0:10:45.065
And so, we can't just think of them[br]as though they're little people

0:10:45.320,0:10:48.339
because they don't do [br]things the way that we do.

0:10:48.849,0:10:52.774
I really love that it's difficult[br]to anthropomorphize insects,

0:10:52.960,0:10:56.301
to look at them and just think of them[br]like they're little people

0:10:56.301,0:10:58.439
in exoskeletons with six legs.

0:10:58.927,0:11:00.273
(Laughter)

0:11:00.459,0:11:05.149
Instead, you really have to accept them on[br]their own terms because insects make us

0:11:05.265,0:11:09.213
question what's normal and what's natural.

0:11:09.654,0:11:14.367
Now, you know, people write fiction[br]and talk about parallel universes.

0:11:14.483,0:11:19.522
They speculate about the supernatural,[br]maybe the spirits of the departed

0:11:19.522,0:11:21.403
walking among us.

0:11:22.749,0:11:30.295
The allure of another world is something[br]that people say is part of why they want

0:11:30.295,0:11:32.268
to dabble in the paranormal.

0:11:32.757,0:11:36.681
But as far as I'm concerned, who needs [br]to be able to see dead people?

0:11:37.029,0:11:38.747
When you can see live insects?

0:11:39.212,0:11:40.094
Thank you.

0:11:40.256,0:11:43.228
(Applause)