BJÖRN VON REUMONT is in search of an oddity. The creature, a blind crustacean, 4 centimetres long and resembling an upside down centipede, is to be found in the watery depths of just a few sinkhole caves around the world – which is why von Reumont is in the ancient Mayan rainforest of the Yucatan in Mexico.
“It’s like diving through Vaseline,” he says, describing the strange sensation of crossing from the fresh surface water to the saltwater below. Some 25 metres down, he enters a narrow cavern filled with stalactites and sculpted rocks, and it’s here, in this dark and alien world, that he spots his quarry. The animal swimming into view in the light of his lamp, searching for prey to impale with its venomous fangs, is a remipede. Although rare, it is not just another curio. Remipedes are the closest living relatives of the most successful creatures on Earth – the insects.
Three-quarters of all known animals are insects, a staggering 1 million species in total with an estimated 4 to 5 million yet to be discovered. By contrast, there are fewer than 70,000 vertebrate species. Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson has suggested there may be as many as 10 quintillion insects alive at any one time – that’s 1018, or more than a billion for each person on the planet. They have colonised every continent, including Antarctica. They can live in air, land and water. They even live on us – lice evolved as soon as there was hair and feathers to set up home in. They are the kings of the arthropods – animals…
