From the introduction: Intelligent insect societies have inherited the earth following the extinction of humanity. Characters are man-sized social insects – ants, termites, wasps, or bees – reacting to, exploring the relics of, and misinterpreting their human predecessors. Since the bugs are newly sentient they don’t have any sense of history. They don’t remember that humans viewed insects as inconsequential - when they weren’t exterminating them as pests. The game’s title is from an anecdote about the biologist J.B.S. Haldane, who, when asked what one could infer about the creator from studying nature, is reported to have replied: "an inordinate fondness for beetles." The phrase also stands in for the insects’ romanticization of humankind.