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9780674009523

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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.

They've been here some 399 million years longer than us, whilst we, along with our vertebrate relatives, amount to a mere 24,000 species, they make up between 5 and 300 million - and we have the arrogance to regard them as alien invaders. With passion, enthusiasm and downright admiration, naturalist Hoyt and entomologist Schultz introduce a packed anthology of insect writing which bristles with life from this 'hidden world beneath our feet and beyond our rolled up newspapers'. With the express intention of rehabilitating the insect's image in the eyes of all 'screamers', 'swatters' and 'steppers', the editors cast their net wide: Wordsworth, Aristotle, E O Wilson, Alfred Russell Wallace, The Old Testament, Gary Larson's Far Side cartoon strip, scraps of movie scripts are among those featured. Weird and wonderful (chocolate-covered crickets, insect petting zoos, necrophagous beasties) the book successfully gives a thorough and eye-opening insight into this other universe. Perhaps the strongest message is, as the editors point out, whilst the differences between us and them are obvious and profound, our anatomical disparities merely represent 'alternate body plans', variant solutions to similar environmental puzzles, and what's more the similarities between us and social insects especially are startling - we keep pets, we live in large organized societies, we practice agriculture, we stage wars, we use symbolic languages. (Kirkus UK)

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