Swatting a state insect

Something was bugging Lisa Conrad, so she did what any warm-blooded American schoolteacher might do. She wrote a poem to the State Congress.\n"After researching we did detect/That Indiana has no state insect," the poem, introducing Senate Bill 546, begins. \nThe bill would crown the monarch butterfly Indiana's new state insect.\nBut one man thinks the state insect debate is a pest.\n"When we get serious, let me know," said Indiana Senate Pro Tempore Bob Garton (R-Columbus). \nGarton sent the bill to committee this session, just like he did for Senate Bill 39 -- featuring the Karner Blue Butterfly for state insect -- last year and a host of others in the past. \nHis concern with critter bills? One word -- criticism. \nGarton said he would only let a state insect bill get a hearing "if I could hear from every editor in the state who says they would support it and won't make fun of the General Assembly." \nBut for bug lovers around the state, the official insect discussion is no joke. \nConrad, a second-grade teacher at Waterloo Elementary School in Waterloo, Ind., is so serious she and her students gathered more than 1,500 signatures from residents in 63 Indiana towns, from Covington to Churubusco. The children then sent their plea to Sen. Dennis Kruse, a Republican representing District 14 in Northwest Indiana, who authored the bill. \n"It's a small item, but it's an item people have an interest in," Kruse said. "I don't think every bill has to be heavy-natured."\nGarton was not moved. \n"I think teachers should find something else to petition the government for," he said. "But maybe it's a good lesson that everything introduced into General Assembly won't pass."\nPurdue University entomology professor Tom Turpin is one teacher whose past petition for a recognized Indiana insect fell flat. A few years ago, Turpin urged legislators to name the Say's firefly Indiana's top bug model. But, as was the case with many state insect bills before and since, Garton squashed his plan.\nA state insect would have the obvious effects of public awareness of one insect species and the subsequent education, Turpin said. But he said he thinks Garton is overlooking the politically tangible advantages of an official state bug, including economic boosts from the production of state-sponsored insect paraphernalia.\n"With the firefly, I can think of neat little chemistry experiments we could have," he said.\nForty-one states have designated either a state insect or a state butterfly. Of those, seven states claim the Monarch as their official bug. \nTennessee, in fact, has four: two state insects -- the Say's firefly and the ubiquitous ladybug; an official agricultural insect -- the honeybee; and an official butterfly -- the Zebra Swallowtail.\nIndiana has none.\nIU professor Armin Moczek, an evolutionary biologist studying insects, said he thinks Indiana could use a big bug. Next fall, he'll teach IU's first entomology class in nearly a decade. Insects are adept at pollination and promote scientific progress, he said. \n"On one side, they are an enormous source of destruction," Moczek said. "On the other side, we could not live without them."\nOf 1.5 million distinct species of life, insects represent 750,000, or half. Of those, 300,000 are beetles. Of those, one is the Rhinoceros Beetle, a burly bug with a huge protruding horn, which Moczek endorses for state insect.\n"It's impressive," Moczek said. "With a state insect, you want something you can show to the school kids. It's a big, flashy, impressive insect."\nMoczek's job is to study insects to learn about the evolution of life.\nIn Rensselaer, Ind., another state professor uses bugs to solve crimes. Neal Haskell, a forensic entomology professor at Saint Joseph's College, said he thinks Garton should swallow his pride and recognize the importance of our groundling friends.\n"People make fun of me all the time. So what?" Haskell said. "If you don't do anything that isn't worth criticizing, you aren't doing anything worthwhile."\nHaskell is one of only a handful of entomologists in the country who solve murders for a living. He studies the bugs on dead bodies and, taking into account the insects' lifespan, habitat and tendency to take over cadavers after a certain amount of time after death, determines the time and possible location of the person's demise.\n"We have a saying in forensic entomology," Haskell said. "'Maggot Power.'"\nAfter extracting all relevant information, Haskell turns witness for either the defense or prosecution in a criminal trial. He estimates his participation at 40 to 50 cases per year, including eight to 15 trials. More than half, he says, are death-penalty murder trials. He claims to have testified more than any forensic entomologist in the world. \nAnd he's not without his favorites. Haskell would like to see the blue bottle fly, one of the most prevalent bugs among cadavers.\n"It solves murders," he said. "And it's huge. It looks like a B-29." \nAll the talk about top bugs might never mean much, though, if Garton remains slow to budge. He spoke candidly about one year -- before he was Pro Tem -- when a school bus unloaded a swarm of children at the Statehouse dressed as ladybugs. They had their own image of Indiana's new state insect.\n"It didn't happen," Garton said.\nBut for people like Lisa Conrad, even Robert Frost can't write a state insect into Indiana law.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.