A World of Insects: The Harvard University Press Reader

As we follow the path of a giant water bug or peer over the wing of a gypsy moth, we glimpse our world anew, at once shrunk and magnified. Owing to their size alone, insects' experience of the world is radically different from ours. Air to them is as viscous as water to us. The predicament of size, along with the dizzying diversity of insects and their status as arguably the most successful organisms on earth, have inspired passion and eloquence in some of the world's most innovative scientists. A World of Insects showcases classic works on insect behavior, physiology, and ecology published over half a century by Harvard University Press.

James Costa, Vincent Dethier, Thomas Eisner, Lee Goff, Bernd Heinrich, Bert Hölldobler, Kenneth Roeder, Andrew Ross, Thomas Seeley, Karl von Frisch, Gilbert Waldbauer, E. O. Wilson, and Mark Winston--each writer, in his unique voice, paints a close-up portrait of the ways insects explore their environment, outmaneuver their enemies, mate, and care for kin.

Selected by two world-class entomologists, these essays offer compelling descriptions of insect cooperation and warfare, the search for ancient insect DNA in amber, and the energy economics of hot-blooded insects. They also discuss the impact--for good and ill--of insects on our food supply, their role in crime scene investigation, and the popular fascination with pheromones, killer bees, and fire ants. Each entry begins with commentary on the authors, their topics, and the latest research in the field.

This broad overview of insect studies is sure to delight, inspire, and enlighten college-level biology students and interested lay readers. Annette Aiello

The editors have gathered some of the finest and most entertaining entomological writing I've ever read. Library Journal

This illustrative overview of the insect world will be helpful and motivating to students interested in biology/entomology as well as lay readers. Amy Stewart - Washington Post

A World of Insects showcases classic works on insect behavior, physiology, and ecology published over half a century by Harvard University Press authors Costa, Dethier, Eisner, Goff, Heinrich, Hölldobler, Roeder, Ross, Seeley, von Frisch, Waldbauer, Wilson, and Winston.

Ring Cardé is Distinguished Professor and A. M. Boyce Chair in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside.Vincent Resh is Professor of Entomology at the University of California, Berkeley.Bert Hölldobler is now Foundation Professor of Biology at Arizona State University; formerly Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociology at the Theodor Boveri Institute, University of Würzburg. He is also the recipient of the U.S. Senior Scientist Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German government. Until 1990, he was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University.Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Mark L. Winston is Academic Director of the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University and Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.Thomas D. Seeley is Professor of Biology, Cornell University.Gilbert Waldbauer is Professor Emeritus of Entomology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Bernd Heinrich is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont. He has written several memoirs of his life in science and nature, including One Man's Owl, Ravens in Winter, and A Year in the Maine Woods, which won the 1995 Rutstrum Authors' Award for Literary Excellence.Thomas Eisner was J.G. Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell University. In 1994 he was awarded the National Medal of Science. His film Secret Weapons won the Grand Award at the New York Film Festival and was named Best Science Film by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.Kenneth D. Roeder was a Professor of Physiology and Chairman of the Department of Biology, Tufts University.Andrew Ross is Principal Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeobotany at the National Museums Scotland.M. Lee Goff is the Coordinator of the Forensic Sciences Program and Professor of Forensic Sciences at Chaminade University of Honolulu.James T. Costa is Executive Director of Highlands Biological Station and Professor of Biology at Western Carolina University.

Highlands Biological Station