Insect Superpowers in Japanese Culture and Ecological Systems - 21 August 2022

Dr. Marjorie Rhine with participants at the Biocore Prairie.

On August 21st, Dr. Marjorie Rhine, a professor in the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, led a wonderful and enlightening hike called Insect Superpowers in Japanese Culture and Ecological Systems. With 8 attendees present we walked around the Lakeshore Nature Preserve to the Biocore Prairie and ended our hike at the Eagle Heights Community Garden. We started by looking at the rain garden near the Picnic Point entrance. Dr. Rhine, pointed out our first insect, a cicada on a leaf. She then followed up by showing us a haiku by Matsuo Basho “Stillness-the cicada’s cry drills into the rocks." Along the way, we discovered several fascinating superpowers that insects possess. Did you know that dragonflies experience time differently than us!! They can observe and process information more quickly than we can!

We ended our hike at the Eagle Heights Community Garden, where Dr. Rhine, showed us the best spot to find butterflies. We spotted a few monarch butterflies! Report and photo by Diana Tapia Ramon.