Our very nature as humans renders us self conscious, i.e. concerned with what befalls our persons and how we affect those around us - and rightly so. Yet one aspect of the natural sciences that I have enjoyed since a child has been that by acquiring (or rather allowing ouselves to acquire) a passionate curiosity of the world about us, i,e. external to ourselves, we may momentarily lose that sense of self and simply gaze and stare in awe at the world about us. Nowadays, with such a hectic life constantly demanding our attention and efforts, this is welcome relief. Take notice of that which is barely notice in our daily walk in this mortal coil...
“Deer, jumping mice and the oven-birds are denizens of the forest floor by virtue of using it as their substratum, but there is also a host of curious animals which use the forest floor, especially the litter of dead leaves, twigs, branches and fruit parts, as their walls, ceiling and sub-basements.
Looked at from the eye level of the cockroach, this litter becomes a several-storey edifice of enormous extent. The various floors are separated by twigs, midribs, petioles, fruit husks, samaras, skulls, elytra and faeces. The lowers one descends, the more compact is the structure. The leaves become more fragmentary, the faeces of worms which have come up from the soil, of caterpillars which live in the trees and of the inhabitants themselves, as well as grains of sand brought up by the worms and a heterogeneous assortment of beetle skulls and wing covers, become more abundant.
This complex is rendered more intricate by the growth of minute fungus moulds which feed upon dead leaves and organic refuse, weaving it all into a compact amt by their myriad white hyphae.
This is the woof woven into the warp of the woodland rug.”
From preface of Soil Animals, Keith McE. Kevan , H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd. (1968) - attributed to A.P. Jacot
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