For many, parasites elicit feelings of disgust or fear, but today’s guest has developed an affection for these small and mighty creatures. Award winning entomologist and evolutionary biologist Dino Martins joins host Patty Peltekos to discuss his new book, Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites.

Martins grew up in rural Kenya where he was surrounded by animal and insect life and cultivated a fascination with mango worms and bot flies. He says we humans are just one of the organisms on this planet and that there’s plenty to learn from parasites because they hold the fabric of life together. They’re present in all areas of the cycle of life, even in our microbiome. He says, “One must truly love and seek to understand all of nature or, alas, you will come to love or understand none of it.”

They discuss the rise of ticks in Wisconsin and around the world, and how these vectors of disease pose serious health problems. Martins says that ticks are resilient and adaptive and they’re simply taking advantage of growth opportunities that humans have created for them through habitat disruptions, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. Invertebrates and insects are in decline all over the world, but parasites are on the rise due to human interference in natural systems.

Martins has a fascination with the minimalist but deeply feeling tapeworm, and describes how some parasites manipulate their hosts and how others are mutualists. Storytelling and art go hand in hand with Martin’s scientific work. He drew the art in Hidden Creatures and asks his students to draw insects when he takes them into the field.

Dino Martins is an award-winning entomologist and evolutionary biologist. A professor at Stony Brook University, he has served as the director of the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya, founded by Dr. Richard Leakey, and previously as the director of the Mpala Research Centre. He holds a PhD in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University. His research and writing have been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, The Guardian, TED, the BBC, Granta, and National Geographic. He lives on Long Island and in Malindi, Kenya.

Featured image of the cover of Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites.

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