An Inordinate Fondness

J.B.S. Haldane is supposed to have said that the creator must have a special fondness for stars and beetles, because there are so many of them. And some of them — the beetles, not the stars — are awfully small.

There are 350,000-400,000 species of beetle — the exact number is probably impossible to know as new ones are discovered and known ones become extinct — making them the largest order of animal. This little number I found in a window sill.