Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1169028 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-04
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.19" h x 6.28" w x 9.25" l, 1.47 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 360 pages

From Library Journal
The editors of this anthology, by their own admission, have gathered here an eclectic assortment of pieces about insects and how we humans have perceived them through the ages. Hoyt is a writer whose previous works include a book about ants, The Earth Dwellers; Schultz is an entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution. The selections for this volume come from Aristotle, Charles Darwin, William Wordsworth, the Bible, contemporary entomologists such as Edward O. Wilson, and dozens of other sources. The editors have arranged the material into ten chapters on themes dealing with insects both praised and reviled, insect societies, mating, metamorphosis, behavior, and more. The book is well suited for browsing, with many illustrations, relatively short entries, and a wide variety of topics and writing styles. Introductions precede each selection and add to the overall enjoyment of the book. Insect Lives simultaneously informs and entertains; recommended for popular natural history collections.AWilliam H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

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 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.