Life of a bug

Dr. Kris Erickson was a professor of Entomology at the University of Copenhagen. His research is mostly on lesser known beetles in the world. About two year ago, he stumbled on a new found species of beetle, the Mryptilephelus coryli, thus decided to study the little bugger.

The Mryp beetle is small comparing to the common beetles and it goes through simple metamorphosis to adulthood, mate and died within a period of 14 days.

What he found fascinated was the fact that the Mryp beetles will never move more than 10 feet away from where they emerged from the egg, even though they have a pair of wings that are capable to carry them to far away places. (This fact that they don’t travel and multiply in exponential scale made them so rare.)

Dr. Erickson worked on his research for two year. Meticulously studying them in their natural habitat and also in lab tests. To determine their habit, diet, the impact of their existence to the environment, but most of all, their way of life. The fact that they never travel more than a 10 feet radius was so fascinating to him.

By the end of his result, he published his findings in a major nature magazine. His found that the Mryp beetle sleep in the day, wake up early at nigh, travel an average of 8 feet to the food source, usually a kind of rare mushroom, and then they eat for hours. After that they will travel the same path back to the log where they were born and sleep. They would do this for 12 days, mate on the 13th day and do the routine again on the 14th day and then died.

After Dr. Kris Erickson published his paper. He went to his favorite restaurant near the University, sit at his usual seat, smiled and put a bullet through his brain. Ending his own routine way of life… he was 42.


The End


(This is a work of fiction and there's no Mryp Beetle nor Dr. Kris Erickson. And no beetles were hurt during his lab testing stage)

p.s. If we were to live without ever venturing outside of our comfort zone or what we are familiar with, we would be living like the fictional Mryp Beetles. Life would not be worth living, just like what Dr. Erickson had found out.

So gang live a little, do something out of the routine way of life. Try Chinese food, to learn another language, travel to the end of the world, sing... better jazz, write a poem, play waterpolo, wear a pink shirt, help someone, talke to your neighbor, switch off the TV for 48 hours, paint something (especially if you are bad at it)... enjoy the sunset (when was the last time you did that?)... enjoy sunrise (huh?)... laugh with your friends and identify the people who loves you and spend some time with them... trust me it's worth it.