Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World - Hardcover

Erich-hoyt-ted-schultz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1840180889 ISBN 13: 9781840180886

Publisher: Mainstream Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

A Wonderful Journey into the Insect World through Literature, Science, Art, and Popular Culture Aristotle on metamorphosis
* Alfred Russel Wallace on the rare butterflies of the Malay Archipelago
* Jean-Henri Fabre on the art of the dung beetle
* Dave Barry on naming the U.S. Official National Insect
* Charles Darwin on seagoing insects
* William Beebe on an army ant invasion
* Kevin Kelly on bee and human swarming
* Jonathan Schell on postnuclear insect survival
* Gary Larson on when insects take over
* May Berenbaum on maggots and murderers
* Henry David Thoreau on race wars among the ants
* Thomas Eisner on stealth bugs
* David George Gordon on appreciating the lowly cockroach
* Maurice Maeterlinck on the queen-bee s wedding
* Edward O. Wilson on insect societies
plus many other essays, illustrations, cartoons, screenplays, poems, recipes, tales, and observations on insect life.

About this title

About the Author

ERICH HOYT has written for National Geographic and the New York Times. He is the author of ten books, including The Earth Dwellers: Adventures in the Land of Ants. TED SCHULTZ, Ph.D., is an entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution and a former editor of Whole Earth Review.

Review

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)

This book includes more than 70 selections from the best and most entertaining writing penned about insects. It captures the entire range of our preoccupation with insects, from timeless passages from the Bible, Aristotle and 19th-century naturalists to the lyrical appreciations of famed poets, novelists and essayists; from the groundbreaking discoveries of 20th-century scientists to the observations of cutting-edge thinkers such as techno-guru, Wired magazine founder and longtime beekeeper Kevin Kelley; from hilariously hyperbolic science fiction screenplays to classic cartoons. (Youngstown Vindicator 2002-12-08)

About this edition

• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1840180889
• ISBN 13: 9781840180886
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320