A retired Yukon-based entomologist is finding artistic inspiration in the tiniest and most private of places: beetle genitalia.
Benoit Godin has been studying aleocharine rove beetles for 18 years. The insects spend most of their time in the litter layer of soil and can be found all across North America, including in the Yukon. In the sub-arctic region alone, there are 238 different aleocharine sub-families.
“They’re really abundant — but nobody knows them,” Godin said.
It’s a testy situation for entomologists. The lack of knowledge is due to the fact that the insects are one of the most difficult-to-identify groups of beetles in the world. Most aleocharine beetles are roughly the same colours, same shape and same length (around half a centimetre).
However, there is one way to accurately identify these insects: by examining their genitals.
That’s what inspired Godin’s idea of depicting some of these beetle bits as large …