In a new book, Stephen Alter writes about discovering monsoon beetles and bugs as a young naturalist
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When I was a boy, growing up in Landour, the monsoon was a time for collecting things, particularly beetles and other bugs. The rains brought with them a vast assortment of crawling creatures like the common house spiders that appeared on our bedroom walls, sometimes bearing white silk egg sacs full of dozens of tiny spiderlings that scattered in all directions if the sac broke. Though the adult spiders looked alarmingly large, these were harmless creatures that helped control insect pests. Another arachnid that often appeared indoors during the monsoon were scorpions that squeezed through gaps under the doors or crept in by way of bathroom drains. They sometimes took refuge in our shoes and every morning we made a habit of knocking the heels of our sneakers together and shaking them vigorously to make sure that nothing was hiding inside.
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