Résumé
Insects are among the most prominent and diverse animal groups interactingwith humans. How they are perceived by human societies, and how artists mediate this interaction,is a singular object of reflection. The relationship has already been analyzed for the most visible/em-blematic of insect taxa, but many others remain seemingly hidden. With a case study of aphids, wewill show that invisibility itself, and many other traits of “tiny insects”, have been the subject ofreflection for a cohort of artists across human history. We will briefly scan a series of examples onthe interaction between nature (aphids, insects), art (artists and scientists) and, finally, human soci-eties from before ancient Greece through to the internet era. Aristotle, the Brueghel’s, Joris Hoefnaeghel, Maria Sibylla Merian, Victor Hugo, Simone de Beauvoir and other artists have all beensomewhat inspired by such insignificant insects and their peculiarities (primarily their reproduction,but also feeding habits or their minute size). However, in the times of the microbiota, of insects’decline and of the sixth extinction, one might actually question the link between size and significance.