When Life Hands You Bugs Learn From Their Metamorphosis

An Invitation to Release

An image of a luminous dragonfly made of copper wire and colorful beads pictured in front of a deep grassy green background. Source: Drawing with Wire: Dragonflies

The Familiar Buzz

In the world of entomology, however, another form of morphology exists: incomplete metamorphosis, which is no less worthy of wonder. Rather than a series of defined, dramatic shifts, incomplete metamorphosis consists of an array of gradual changes over an insect’s life cycle. There is still an egg, larva, and adult, but no pupa phase in which it is entirely undone. Instead, the larva will molt (shed its exoskeleton) many times on its journey to maturation.
— Willow Defebaugh, Incomplete Metamorphosis published via Atmos on February 26th, 2021.

Monday turns to Tuesday, Tuesday bleeds into Wednesday and the bug is still buzzing. Reminding me of all the stories I used to tell myself: “You don’t have the mind of a programmer”, “some people are born with this disposition to code, you weren’t”, “isn’t it better to …