Synopses & Reviews
Eric Hoyt and Ted Schultz share their magnificent obsession in Insect Lives. In a tour de force of popularization, they bring us the finest entomological writing of the past couple of millennia ... An excellent, illuminating compendium whose breadth serves as praise both for the diversity and frequent weirdness of its subject and for the scholarship and dedication of its authors. --New Scientist Alien creatures have overrun planet Earth. They wear skeletons on the outside, bite sideways, smell with antennae, taste with their feet, and breathe through holes in the sides of their bodies ... They are the insects ... Taken altogether, this collection delivers what Hoyt and Schultz promise in their introduction--'a sweeping tour of the human fascination with insects.' The result is mighty good reading. --Scientific American Human perspectives on insects lurch between fear and fascination. This collection displays the full spectrum of views, in writings by Aristotle, Darwin, Wordsworth, Thoreau, and many more. Most of the authors excerpted here are bug enthusiasts, and they portray the marvels of the insect world with evident joy. --Science News
Synopsis
Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World offers an entertaining and informative survey of the human fascination, dreadful and otherwise, with insects diabolical and divine, from accounts in the Bible and Aristotle to the writings of Charles Darwin and the great nineteenth-century naturalists sending home accounts from the rain forest.
Synopsis
Insects inhabit an often unexamined microcosmos, pursuing lives that are often strange beyond our wildest imaginings. From the dawn of humanity, our six-legged fellow Earthlings have repelled and enthralled us. Humans have exterminated, eaten, domesticated, and even excommunicated insects. We collect them, we curse them, and we have penned a surprising body of literature about them.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Synopsis
Insects inhabit an often unexamined microcosmos, pursuing lives that are often strange beyond our wildest imaginings. From the dawn of humanity, our six-legged fellow Earthlings have repelled and enthralled us. Humans have exterminated, eaten, domesticated, and even excommunicated insects. We collect them, we curse them, and we have penned a surprising body of literature about them.
Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World offers an entertaining and informative survey of the human fascination, dreadful and otherwise, with insects diabolical and divine, from accounts in the Bible and Aristotle to the writings of Charles Darwin and the great nineteenth-century naturalists sending home accounts from the rain forest. Highlighted here are observations from E. O. Wilson, Jean-Henri Fabré, David Quammen, May Berenbaum, Roger Swain, William Wordsworth, A. S. Byatt, Gary Larson and more than sixty other writers who tell of the mystery and romance of that other, hidden world beneath our feet and beyond our rolled-up newspapers.
About the Author
Erich Hoyt has written for National Geographic and the New York Times. He is the author of ten books.Ted Schultz is Research Entomologist at the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
Smithsonian Institute
Table of Contents
Editors' Note
Introduction
1. Wonders of Creation: Insects Praised
So Great the Excitement . Alfred Russet Wallace
To a Butterfly . William Wordsworth
The Sacred Beetle . Jean-Henri Fabre
Enjoying Insects in the Home Garden . Howard Ensign Evans
The Ways of a Mud Dauber . George D. Shafer
Ode to the Cricket . William Cowper
Manna from Heaven . Exodus, The Bible
Things Clean and Unclean . Leviticus, The Bible
The Culinary Marvels of Insect Life . Edward Step
Insect Extravaganza . Jim Mertins
Why Not Eat Insects? . Vincent M. Holt
Sugaring for Moths . W. J. Holland
Bug Off! . Dave Barry
2. Plagues of Vermin: Insects Reviled
A Treatise of Buggs . John Southall
Death-Watch Beetles and the Flypaper Sellers of London . Frank Cowan
Insecticides . Tim Hunkin
Bee Bites . Roger B. Swain
A Pain Scale for Bee, Wasp, and Ant Stings . Christopher K. Starr
Fancy Footwork . David George Gordon
Sympathy for the Devil . David Quammen
Of Maggots and Murderers . May Berenbaum
3. To Conquer the Earth: Insects Take Over
Disturbing the Composure of an Entomologist's Mind . Charles Darwin
Locusts in the Land of Egypt . Exodus, The Bible
Giant Red Velvet Mites . Irwin M. Newell and Lloyd Tevis Jr.
Them! . George Worthing Yates and Ted Sherdeman
Insects from Mars
A Republic of Insects and Grass . Jonathan Schell
Insects Take Over . Gary Larson
The End . W. J. Holland
4. A Cast of Millions on a Fantastic Journey: Mass Movement
Insects at Sea . Charles Darwin
Army Ants . Thomas Belt
Caterpillars on the Line . George John Romanes
Swarms of Flies . Harold Oldroyd
More Flies at Teatime . Vincent G. Dethier
Need Nectar, Will Travel . Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan
5. The Superorganism: Social Insects
The Insect Societies . Edward 0. Wilson
Morpho Eugenia . A. S. Byatt
The Spirit of the Hive . Maurice Maeterlinck
The Termite Queen in Her Egg Chamber . Gary Larson
Hive Mind . Kevin Kelly
6. Insect Architecture
Some Accounts of the Termites . Henry Smeathman
The Hometown of the Army Ants . William Beebe
The New Zealand Glow-worm . F. W Edwards
Guatemalan Web-Spinning Cave Flies . 0. F. Cook
Caddisfly Houses and Net Traps . Bernd Heinrich
Bee Cells . Karl von Frisch
7. Go Forth and Multiply: Mating and Reproduction
The Hostile Madness of Love . Maurice Maeterlinck
The Synchronous Flashing of Fireflies . John Buck and Elisabeth Buck
Sex on the Brain . James E. Lloyd
The Courtship Gifts of Balloon Flies . Edward L. Kessel
How to Win Mates and Influence Enemies . John Alcock
Fatal Attractions . May Berenbaum
No Sex, Please . Tim Hunkin
8. Metamorphosis
Of Eggs, Grubs, Nymphas, and Wings . Aristotle
The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars . Maria Sibylla Merian
Everyday Miracles . William Kirby and William Spenee
The Mediterranean Worm Lion . William Morton Wheeler
Mexican Jumping Beans. Real! Live! . Chaparral Novelties, Inc.
The Double Life . Robert Evans Snodgrass
9. Symbioses and Mimicry
Tiny Pollinator; Big Job . Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan
Jerry's Botfly . Adrian Forsyth
The Ant and the Acacia Tree . Thomas Belt
To a Louse . Robert Burns
An Earful of Mites . Asher E. Treat
Murder by Narcosis . Edward Jacobson
The Ant-Decapitating Fly . Theodore Pergande
For the Love of Nature . Thomas Eisner
Mimics, Aggressive and Otherwise . John Alcock
10. Lives under the Microscope: Insect Behavior
Little Crumple-Wing . George D. Shafer
Brute Neighbors . Henry David Thoreau
Slave-Making in Ants . Charles Darwin
The Daintiness of Ants Reverend . Henry C. McCook
The Tenderness of Earwigs . Charles Degeer and George John Romanes
Letter from Brazil: Termites and Stingless Bees . Fritz Muller, introduced by Charles Darwin
The Social Behavior of Burying Beetles . Lorus I. Milne and Margery Milne
Insect Consciousness . Donald R. Griffin
Acknowledgments
List of Authors
Index