Whitney and I worked together to research and write on the class topic of SHARING. You can find our learnings in a blog post on Whitney’s site. Within that post we mention my love of beetles and a book I have about beetles. I thought to put in some further explanation about this fondness on my blog and mention how I think beetles and their work is a great metaphor for sharing.

Scarab

The book is called An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles (Evans & Bellamy) and the opening line in the prologue is “Asked what could be inferred about the work of the Creator from a study of His works, the British Scientist J.B.S. Haldane is reported to have replied, “an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

The reason why Haldane said this is because beetles are the “most successful animals on earth.” According to the book, “if every plant and animal species were placed in a row, every fifth species would be a beetle.” Estimates of the number of beetle species range from 350,000 to 8 million (Evans & Bellamy, 1996). There are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal. (Wikipedia. Accessed 18 October 2008.)

To make the metaphor, I want to look at beetles in the context of the role they play in their particular environments.

Beetles are mostly “minute recycling machines, returning organic materials to the soil for use by other organisms.” The sheer diversity of the species and their “propensity for colonizing new habitats and exploiting underutilized niches” make beetles “ideally suited to meet the rigors of their demanding and unforgiving environments” (Evans & Bellamy, p. 73).

As a simple metaphor, people who use sharing tools are like beetles. They are from all walks of life and they create and consume within their environment and share with others what they have created and consumed. Because of this sharing and collaboration, other ideas can grow and develop.