To
describe an insect would rarely include
the anecdotes of violent murderers,
jealous mates, and slave-making
societies. These activities occur
around us every day, yet our human
society is largely focused upon the
friends or foes to our direct lives. The
success of pollinators is given far more
attention than a lowly dung beetle
navigating by the night sky. As we often
define insects as relative to humans,
the “good” and “bad” insect
classification overlooks the natural
order that occurs, where no one insect
is the best. Insects are arguably
looking for biological success – to
procreate and pass on specific genes.
They engage in wacky reproductive
behaviors, gentle parental care, intense
societal competition, and brutal
predation. Existence is a web of
energetic and resource trade-offs.
These amazing insects
exist in close proximity to us, yet it’s
difficult to appreciate the life-history
of a given species. They inhabit nearly
every environment on earth, living out
specific lives engineered by thousands
of years of evolution. A beautiful
butterfly that brings a smile to our
faces has slowly turned into that
creature after generations of change. It
will continue to change and evolve if
successful, paving the way for
successful generations to come. If
humans cease to exist, Earth won’t turn
into a world overrun by cockroaches. The
creatures will return toward their
natural order of checks-and-balances,
where there is no clear winner. There
will be no categorization of a good or
bad insect, only that they exist.
FREE and
ONLINE
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
5:30-7:00 pm CDT
Sign in 5:00-5:30 pm for
informal cigar and cocktail chatter. The event will be
called to order at 5:30.
There will be a Q&A session
following the lecture. Audience
participation is invited. The event will conclude at 7 pm.
An optional cocktail party and
discussion will continue after the
event. Be sure to have your
cocktails and cigars at ready
hand.
KRISTIANNA
LEA graduated from Cornell
University with a BS in
entomology and a master's from
the Johnson School of Business.
By day she is a business analyst
at Impendi Analytics. By night,
she focuses onarthropodneuroethology–the
interaction of neurophysiology,
behavior, and evolution in
insects, spiders, and
crustaceans.
ONE OF THE OLDEST AND
greatest traditions of the city clubs of
Chicago is the discussion of intellectual,
social, legal, artistic, historical,
scientific, musical, theatrical, and
philosophical issues in the company of
educated, bright, and appropriately
provocative individuals, all under the
beneficent influence of substantial
amounts of tobacco and spirits. The
Cigar Society of Chicago
embraces this tradition and extends it
with its Informal Smokers, University
Series lectures, and Cigar
Society Dinners, in which cigars,
and from time to time pipes and
cigarettes, appear as an important
component of our version of the classical
symposium. To be included in the
Cigar Society's mailing list, write to the
secretary at
curtis.tuckey@logicophilosophicus.org
