Entomologist Tells Insect Inside Story With ‘Sex, Bugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll’

Like many other columnists before her, May Berenbaum was tempted to turn some of her best pieces into a book. She succumbed, and “Buzzwords” is the result.

If Berenbaum’s name doesn’t seem familiar, it probably means the reader is not among the 7,000 or so insect specialists who belong to the Entomological Society of America and read Berenbaum’s column in their journal, American Entomologist.

It’s a serious journal and Berenbaum is a serious scientist--head of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois and an expert on the chemical interactions between insects and plants. But her column, also titled “Buzzwords,” is funny. Seriously.

And “Buzzwords,” the book published by the Joseph Henry Press (tellingly subtitled “A Scientist Muses on Sex, Bugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll’), is funny enough that she can safely devote considerable space to flatulence (termites and cockroaches are major offenders), kinky sex (praying mantises may have an unjustly bad reputation, but dragonflies definitely like it really rough) and general lust (certain male beetles die a horrible death when denied sexual release).

She discusses the occurrence of bot fly maggots in the nasal passages.

Berenbaum also examines images of insects in popular culture, particularly in rock lyrics and cheesy 1950s science fiction movies. She’s become an expert on the latter genre through her role as founder and organizer of the university’s annual Insect Fear Film Festival.

She also unknowingly lent her last name to “Bambi Berenbaum,” a “luscious babe” of an entomologist featured in a 1996 episode of “The X-Files” titled “War of The Coprophages.”

Because the real Berenbaum knows a bit about coprophages (dung eaters), scriptwriter Darin Morgan read some of her works while doing research and named his fictional creation in her honor.

Since she seems equally at home explaining the anatomy of the glow-in-the-dark fungus gnat maggot or celebrating her favorite singer, “Weird Al” Yankovic, questions arise as to what sort of person Berenbaum is, and how she got that way. As a child, did she collect butterflies? Or did she fry ants with a magnifying glass?

“Absolutely not! And you should be ashamed of yourself for admitting you did, you awful person,” she said in an interview.

“Actually, I used to be afraid of insects as a kid,” she said. “I knew I wanted to be a biologist from a very early age, but I didn’t get interested in insects until I was an undergraduate at Yale and took a course on terrestrial arthropods from a favorite professor who became my mentor. Insects are the most numerous terrestrial arthropods, and I got hooked.”

And because insects can be found almost anywhere, they made good research subjects for Berenbaum, who suffers from a severe congenital form of motion sickness and doesn’t care to travel in search of specimens.

When Berenbaum does travel, medication and “barf bags” in hand, it’s generally to scientific conferences. One of those trips, to the entomological society’s 1991 conference, led to her second career as a columnist.

“Biologists all love [former “Far Side” cartoonist] Gary Larson, and we wanted him as a guest speaker, but he couldn’t make it,” she said. “The president of the society knew I was addicted to bad puns, so he asked me to fill in, and I did. I got some laughs, so he asked me if I wanted to write a column, and I agreed.”

Now, biologists who might read other publications for Berenbaum’s research on “Furanocoumarin metabolism in Papilio Polyxenes,” can look to “Buzzwords” for her puns, as well as her views on such subjects as entomophagy (eating bugs).

Americans and Europeans may get a bit queasy at the thought, but the order Insecta is a frequent order “to go” in many parts of the world. And it’s not just the worm in the tequila bottle or those plump grubs featured on CBS’s “Survivor.” Termites, beetles and crickets all have their aficionados.

“Cockroaches aren’t that popular, but some tribal groups in Thailand do eat them,” she said. “And locusts are even kosher--it says so right in Leviticus. So John the Baptist wasn’t violating any dietary laws with his locusts and wild honey.”

Once or twice a year, Berenbaum encourages members of an undergraduate class she teaches to chow down on a few creepy-crawlies, usually cooked by an Asian or African graduate assistant.

But as many of the students notice, Berenbaum never eats the insects herself.

“I can’t, I’m a strict vegetarian,” she said. “But whenever I can, I get my husband, Richard, to join in, and he does. Some people, though, use this to cast doubts on my matrimonial devotion.”