A moth, a flea, a louse, a mosquito, and a bee….
Insects are seldom mentioned in history texts, yet they significantly shaped human history. For example:

• Silkworms have been farmed to produce silk for millennia, and the Silk Road created a history of empires and cultural exchanges of ideas, philosophies, and religions.
• Fleas and lice carried bacteria that caused three major plague pandemics. Bacteria carried by insects left their ancient clues as DNA embedded in victims’ teeth.
• Lice caused outbreaks of typhus, especially in crowded conditions such as prisons and concentration camps. Typhus aggravated the effects of the Irish potato famine, and Irish refugees took typhus to North America.
• Mosquito-borne yellow fever was transported to the Americas via the trans-Atlantic slave trade, causing panic in the US and creating hazards in constructing the Panama Canal.
• The western honey bee feeds countless people, and their crop pollination is worth billions of dollars.

Dr. Rob Wiedenman will explore the impact and common threads connecting these insects. Using biology to complement history, he’ll showcase these small creatures in a whole new light. This talk is based on his book, coauthored by J. Ray Fisher: The Silken Thread: Five Insects and Their Impacts on Human History.

Rob Wiedenmann is Professor Emeritus of Entomology at the University of Arkansas. He received a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and a Ph.D. in Entomology, both from Purdue University. He also worked at the Illinois Natural History Survey, where he focused on biological control of insects and weeds.  He is a past-president of the Entomological Society of America.