Flying insects which encounter difficulties in built environments are often ungenerously thought of as "stupid" or "dumb," such as when they bob their way pathetically across a pane of glass, or hover hopelessly around an outdoor light. Setting aside the numerous social problems attached to those words and concepts in the first place, this initial judgment also obscures more than it reveals.
Perhaps a more interesting question to think about is this general sense of bewilderment in the animal kingdom, in which the many beings that share the earth with us are simply at a loss when it comes to coping with this massive and spectacular human built environment, which in geological and evolutionary timeframes, has suddenly materialized into view like the sudden arrival of the Star Wars star destroyers as they exit hyperspace.
For that matter, human beings themselves are bewildered in the face of their own kaleidoscopically morphing creations. Perfectly intelligent and perceptive people often run right into the very screen doors they install and manipulate on a daily basis, when they aren't paying full attention to their surroundings.
Now, the poor insects haven't had the time to evolve responses to the baffling planes of glass which appear out of nowhere and stretch on seemingly into infinity, or the never ending constellation of outdoor lights which replace their natural forms of guiding light. These are some of the many environmental sinks which have suddenly materialized within the last 200 years, and which are hoovering up the lives of whole clouds of insects, as they are burned on light and flame, or exhaust themselves fruitlessly following false light, or are picked off by predators waiting by the lights.
We've been wondering where all of the insects have been going, as any anecdotal remark about the decline of the windshield "bugsplat" can attest to. There are many exits from the mortal coil that they have been taking. These are just a few of them.
