Paul Norrigan

“It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. —Mark Twain”
― Kira Jane Buxton, Hollow Kingdom

“plant feeding has a very desirable outcome. It prevents particular plant species from becoming superabundant and weedy, allowing vastly more species to coexist in much smaller spaces. Plant-feeding insects are a driving force in the evolution of plant community species richness, and so the extraordinary plant diversity of tropical habitats is largely due to insect diversity, not despite it.”
― Scott Richard Shaw, Planet of the Bugs: Evolution and the Rise of Insects

“The researchers then compared the microbiomes of volunteers who had been diagnosed with depression with those who had not, finding two types of bacteria—Coprococcus and Dialister—that were common in the guts of healthy participants but absent in those who suffered depression. Both of these bacteria produce substances known to have antidepressive properties.”
― Jonathan Kennedy, Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

“Not many organisms totally depend on humans for their continued existence, but a large part of living plants and terrestrial animals depend partly or entirely on insects for their survival.”
― Scott Richard Shaw, Planet of the Bugs: Evolution and the Rise of Insects