Lovebugs on the Prairie

From left: Jayson Kunkel `26 and Maya Albanese `26 put together their heart necklace that they both have a piece of. (Alissa Booth)

Bugs are omnipresent in rural Grinnell — so is love. Maya Albanese `26 and Jayson Kunkel `26 share a love for bugs through photography. Yoshi Ascencio `27 and their partner, Naveen Rosas, 20, a student at California State University Long Beach share their love for bugs through collection.

Albanese & Kunkel

Maya Albanese `26 and Jayson Kunkel `26 met in their first semester of their first year at Grinnell. Albanese’s passion for photography began long before that. In junior year of high school, Albanese had an interest in wild mushrooms.

“I was just taking photos to document the mushrooms and then to help identify them later, which, like, you can’t really identify a mushroom very well from just a photo, but whatever, I didn’t know that,” Albanese said. “At some point, somebody was like, ‘Wow, those are actually really good,’ and I was just like, ‘Oh, I’m literally just straining to get photos of mushrooms.’ Then I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll get more artful about this.’”

In the summer of 2024, Albanese decided to buy a macro lens clip for her cell phone and venture into the world of bugs. “When I wasn’t doing my MAP research, I would just go out with my little macro lens and look at bugs,” she said.

From left: Jayson Kunkel `26 and Maya Albanese `26 venture onto the tree on MacEachron (Mac) Field for a portrait on Nov. 15, 2025. (Alissa Booth)

For her, immersing herself in the world of bugs was a solace during the dormancy of Grinnell during the summer.

For Kunkel, he said, “The love for bugs came first, then the interest in photographing the bugs came next.”

The two’s love for bugs blossomed when Albanese showed Kunkel weevils in Grinnell during the summer of 2024. While abroad in Copenhagen in spring of 2025, Kunkel decided to buy a digital camera.

Kunkel was not much of a photographer until he began using his camera.

“I’d take photos on my phone just of what I saw, but then I wanted to do the macro stuff,” he said. “My phone camera is terrible, you can’t really make out any details on it. So [Maya] had her macro clip attachment, and I thought, ‘Wow, that looks awesome, I want to do that too.’ Then I got a camera.”

Kunkel said that he prefers his handheld camera over his phone. “I think if I have my phone out, I’m going to be on my phone. Using a dedicated camera is a way for me to intentionally disconnect from my phone,” he said. He added that photos preserve memories.

“I mean, not just bugs, but … any small animal, it’s such a fascinating world that a lot of people don’t know about. It’s so interesting to just be privileged to record that and be able to see that happening,” Kunkel said.

In February of 2025, the two decided to share their love of bugs with the world on Instagram.

Their page, @lovebugs.photos, centers around the bugs they’ve found and taken photos of. The Instagram features bugs like the Virginian tiger moth and praying mantises, both of which are Albanese’s favorites.

Social media was also a way for Albanese and Kunkel to stay connected when studying abroad, said Kunkel.

Other favorite bug-related activities of the couple include watching documentaries, like “Deep Look” on YouTube and “A Bug’s Life” on Disney Plus, and visiting nature spots.

Albanese also pointed to Burling Library’s Special Collections & Archives — home to a ton of cool bug books.

“I think more people should at least be open to thinking about bugs and how beneficial they are in the systems that go unnoticed in society,” said Kunkel.

“I mean, you don’t have to love bugs like we do, I just think more people should appreciate them and take time to notice them and respect them,” said Kunkel. “Your first reaction shouldn’t immediately be to kill every bug you see ‘cause it’s scary.”

Ascencio & Rosas

Yoshi Ascencio `27 has had an interest in bugs since they began walking. “My main interest when I was younger was I really liked nature, I really liked animals. The animal that I had most access to were bugs,” they said. “They’re kind of everything, and I would always play outside. I was, you know, drawing in the dirt, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a roly poly!’”

When Ascencio came to Grinnell, they were excited to notice the variety and abundance of bugs on campus.

Yoshi Ascencio `27 presents a bug to the camera on the tree on MacEachron (Mac) Field for a portrait on Nov. 16, 2025. (Alissa Booth)

During the spring semester of their first year, bugs became a passion for Ascencio.

They began connecting that passion to other parts of their life. Recently, for their final in ART-238: Painting with Professor Kaufman, Ascencio is turning to the distaste of bugs as a metaphor for bias.

“I’m going to put a hat on a bug to sort of give it that human aspect and that humor aspect. But, also, the way that we look at a bug, like compare, I don’t know, a beetle to a butterfly. People are going to be scared of the beetle, and they’re going to be fine with a butterfly.”

Ascencio said they are applying that to biases that people might have against those who are different from them.

Ascencio is also working on a comic that focuses on bugs in a post-apocalyptic world. “I guess my main goal in making that is spreading more awareness about climate change and, like, ‘If we don’t do something about it, it’s going to end up like this,’” they said.

Ascencio shares this passion with Rosas, through bug collection.

In their first year, upon Rosas’ request, Ascencio brought home a cicada molt to him. Ascencio now collects bugs for him, placing them in the “bug box.”

“It’s just basically a Tupperware container I bought at Walmart that I could just fill with dead bugs,” they said.

To Ascencio, the bug box is a way to preserve the memory of bugs that have passed on. It is also great for references.

“I don’t know if fun is the right word, I feel like some people would find it morbid, but I think it’s cool,” they said. “Because my partner also draws, one, it’s a fun project, and two, we can use those bugs as a reference for anything else that we might need.”

“It’s a teaching moment,” said Ascencio.

Like Kunkel mentioned, Ascencio said that different bugs might be scary upon first glance, but when you take a closer look, you can notice cool things you might not have seen without taking the opportunity to.

“I have a friend who’s … not as thrilled about [bugs] as I am, she’s kind of neutral,” Ascencio said. “But then I showed her this video of a butterfly, and then you take a closer look and [you see] it has these little white lines of its antenna that you really wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”

“Just sort of taking the time to slow down and observe something, you gain a new appreciation for it,” they added.