Insect Regulations

[Kenelm Philip]

	I suspect that Sally and I will have to agree to disagree on these
matters. With regard to her last posting:

> Maybe we should assume they feel pain until it is proven otherwise.

a) Why should we assume they can feel pain when no one has found pain re-
ceptors in their nervous systems. See Wigglesworth, Chapman, and other
references on insect physiology. 

b) By that reasoning, we would have to assume that bacteria and plants feel
pain as well. Hang up your pruning shears, stop taking showers, etc.

> Mammals, such as cats, have to fed mammals, such as mice, also.

Kittens do not spend their entire juvenile lives _inside_ live mice, which
are kept alive while being slowly consumed from the inside out. By our
peculiar standards, the lives of insects are indeed "...poore, nasty,
brutish, and short."

> I think that those who worry only about protecting warm furry animals are
> the ones who aren't thinking.

Lots of people, myself included, worry about protecting insects. I just
don't worry about protecting each and every _single_ insect. Neither
does nature, it appears. Our views about protecting organisms tend to
reflect our being K-strategists: we invest a lot of effort in each of
our offspring, as do mammals in general. Insects (most of them) are
consummate r-strategists: they produce lots of offspring and devote
little time caring for any one of them. If people wish to do that,
they are free to do so--but why should I? I must admit that I don't
normally pick butterflies out of mud puddles, or extract them from
spider webs. Pond life and spiders need their food too...

	Protect the _habitat_, and the insects will take care of them-
selves.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu