“An inordinate fondness for beetles.” So J.B.S. Haldane famously quipped when asked what he thought could be deduced about God through the study of natural history. He had a point. There are 380,000 (give or take) species presently known to science – with untold thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, still undiscovered and not yet described.
The scene: England in the middle ages. King Arthur and his faithful servant Patsy have just clip-clopped by two men standing by the road. Large Man: Who’s that then? Dead Collector: I dunno. Must be a king. Large Man: Why? Dead Collector: He hasn’t got shit all over him. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) […]