Bug-Infested : The New Insect Exhibit at Natural History Museum Is Perfect for Anyone Who Is Interested in Anything That Creeps, Crawls

Contrary to rumor, the Natural History Museum’s just-opened insect zoo is not a “Far Side” cartoon come to life.

These insects don’t gossip at cocktail parties. There are no millipedes lounging on sofas, sniveling about their bulging body segments.

But unlike Gary Larson’s cartoons, the zoo packs in 35 terrariums crawling with African emperor scorpions, dung scarab beetles, Oriental cockroaches, giant water bugs, walking sticks and other assorted arthropods.

The 2,900-square-foot display is geared toward curious children and adults who recall the wonder of watching a praying mantis committing fratricide on the back yard lilac bush.

The zoo, which ranks third in size behind the Smithsonian Institution and the Cincinnati zoo’s live insect collections, displays some of Mother Nature’s more innovative inventions.

First stop: A few dozen Madagascan hissing cockroaches. Unlike the kitchen variety that form nightly conga lines across your tiled floor, these guys prefer the outdoors. Finger-sized with a glassy black-and-tan hue, they emit a sharp hissing sound when threatened.

Zoo director Art Evans began breeding cockroaches for the new collection three years ago with just three critters.

“I just added food and water and now we have 300,” says Evans. “They’re fun, they’re big and they’re slow. Some people keep them as pets.”

Evans purchased other insects from universities and museums, although some were gifts and a few were found under logs in the San Gabriel Mountains. The dung scarab beetles, distant relatives of sacred scarabs pictured in Egyptian hieroglyphics, were gathered roadside near Pasadena horse ranches.

Other exotic must-sees include voracious Malaysian dead leaf mantises perched on manzanita branches. Although the mantises are nearly four inches long, you’ll have to look hard to spy them. Masters of camouflage, this species sports wings that resemble dried tobacco leaves. In fact, their entire bodies are punctured with holes and tears, mimicking a leaf plagued by hungry insects.

A score of stink bugs and celadon-colored ironclad beetles scurry in another tank. Watch for stink bugs that perform head stands--they’re about to squirt some noxious juice into the eyes of a predator. Nearby, a 22-year-old endangered Mexican red-knee tarantula named Maggie gnaws on a fat meal worm.

Other tarantulas--named Connie, Boris, Dorothy, Toto and Clyde--occasionally hit the road with Evans, whose traveling insect zoo goes to schools, camps and shopping centers.

The traveling collection and zoo are named for the Ralph M. Parsons Pasadena engineering firm that supplied a $465,000 start-up grant for the collections. Evans and zoo designers have used the money creatively--consider the giant ant farm special ordered from Culver City-based Uncle Milton Industries.

The farm is placed next to the zoo’s other big toy, a “Bioscanner” that permits a magnified look at carpenter ants burrowing through a slab of fir. Other subjects in the revolving display include caterpillars, praying mantises and termites.

Across from the Bioscanner, insectivorous plants--a Venus flytrap, sundew and pitcher plant--await tasty houseflies. The sundew strangles victims by wrapping them in its leaves. It is death by drowning for bugs that tumble into the pitcher plant’s foot-long tubular leaves lined with hairs pointing downward. There’s no exit once victims splash into the vat of digestive juices far below.

It’s not a pretty sight. But Evans plays down the drama. “Some people expect the plants to snap and grab and make growling sounds,” he says. “This isn’t the ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ ”

Insects with attitude hang out at the zoo’s “La Ciudad de los Insectos,” a glowing, yard-high skyscraper that lists current arthropod population counts--about 10 quintillion individuals divided into 1.5 million species. The importance of insects is also spelled out here. Should humans disappear, the Earth would eventually return to a pristine state. Should insects vanish, chaos would ensue because the ecological chain would be upset--critters that depend on bugs for meals would die, and meat-eating critters that depend on bug-eating critters would die and so on, not to mention what would would happen to plants denied the pollination process.

Elsewhere, 18 educational displays detail insect defense systems and agricultural programs that use biocontrol strategies. Mechanical models of cricket wings and a cicada’s thorax reveal how the two insects produce their high-pitched sounds.

Giant close-up photos of insects are hung throughout the area (check out the ominous-looking photo of a Medfly laying her eggs). Collecting equipment is displayed, including instructions on how to make your own zoo.

Cultural icons inspired by insects are also featured: a copy of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” the sheet music to “Flight of the Bumblebee” and an “Arachnophobia” movie poster.

Some of the zoo’s displays and species will travel to the Insect Fair at Los Angeles State & County Arboretum this weekend.

The sixth annual bug fest will feature 46 exhibits, including booths that peddle beneficial insects and plants. Lady bugs, green lacewings and earthworms will be sold, as well as beneficial nematodes, a microscopic insect that feasts on 230 soil-dwelling relatives. At $25 for a batch of 7 million, the nematodes are a real bargain.

Other booths feature bee-keeping equipment, strategies for ant control, wind-up insect toys, arthropod artwork, jewelry and a bug bakery.

It’s not what you think. The bakery’s cookies and cupcakes are only bug-shaped.

But insect recipes will be available for the asking: Termite pilaf, cicada fritters, fried meal worms (you eat them like popcorn) and grasshopper stew.

Bon appetit.

Bugs, Up Close and Personal

* The Natural History Museum’s Ralph M. Parsons Insect Zoo, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Tues.- Fri.; 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sat.-Sun. General admission: $5, adults; $3.50, students and seniors; and $2, children, ages 5-12; (213) 744-3558.

* The Insect Fair will be held May 16-17 at Los Angeles State & County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Hours: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. Admission: $3, adults; $1.50 students and seniors; 75 cents for children, ages 5-12; (818) 821-3222.