Insect Lives Stories of Mystery & Romance from a Hidden World

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

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.

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.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

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.

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

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