Why did he start doing this?
What drove his fascination towards insects?
He always had an interest in insects. “Most children have a bug period,” he wrote in his memoir Naturalist. “I never grew out of mine.”
Furthermore, when he was 7, while fishing, Wilson blinded himself in one eye. He did not seek medical attention for his eye injury, and his eye condition deteriorated the next few month. He had cataract in his right pupil. Wilson had to have his lens removed, of which the “surgery was a terrifying [19th] century ordeal”.
In addition to his partial blindness, he started becoming partially deaf in his adolescence years, so he could not pursue his original interest ornithological fieldwork, which was the study of birds. Ornithology required good vision and acute hearing, both senses of which he was lacking in. As such, he decided to explore the world of insects. Wilson could easily observe insects without straining his damaged senses.
In addition, being an avid reader, Wilson was influenced by the books her grew up reading as well, especially during his teenage years.
Some of the books (and how he was influenced by them) include: