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God, the English biologist J.B.S. Haldane once observed, has an inordinate fondness for beetles--and, for that matter, for all the other little bugs and insects that abound on the earth. Sue Hubbell, a beekeeper-turned-essayist, shares that fondness, and after reading her notes on camel crickets, gypsy moths, and water striders, among other creatures, you will as well. Hubbell's appreciation extends even to bugs that we find noxious ("Silverfish," she writes, "are gregarious, sociable animals, liking their own company so much that they often eat one another"), although she admits to harboring a few favorites among the innumerable insect orders, notably bees, of course, and daddy longlegs spiders, whose "otherness" she rightly prizes. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (7)

More research
I love studying insects and Ms. Hubbell's book makes a pretty interesting addition to my collection.Her research on the lady beetles and black flies are nothing to complain about.However, recent studies have concluded that Darwin's pepper moth research is flawed, and in Ms. Hubbell's own words "For years biologists taught their students that the viceroy butterfly,...was a prime example of an edible Bastian mimic. ...and all the lecture notes and guidebooks will have to be rewitten."Maybe she needs to rewrite her own notes? Other than the lock-step Darwinianism, Ms. Hubbell make a compelling argument for the closer study of insects from the custest to the most annoying.A very good read from someone who obviously adores her subject and makes it interesting for the layman (latin names and all!).

Great essays
This is a neat book.Hubell takes a look at a number of insects that we're all familiar with (butterflies, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, silverfish, katydids, dragonflies, crickets, and more) and has a short essay on each, taking us past just the basics that field guides provide to understand and appreciate more about the lives and behaviors of these animal.There are also neat little fun facts like history of the names, european stories of the insects, etc.Her writing style is easy to read yet there is a balance between technical/biological facts and fun easy anecdotes/stories.Its all woven together so its not like you're reading a text book but you're stil learning a lot.There are lovely drawings sprinkled in throughout the book.Overall I really enjoyed the book and have gained some neat new knowledge that otherwise I would not have encountered.Here's a quick tidbit: for the eastern katydid - the latin name translates as "That being which has wings like a camellia leaf."Neat - makes me look a little differently at the katydid too.I loved this book - highly recommeded for any nature lover.

excellent popular book on insects and other arthropods
Hubbell is clearly pasionate about insects and their relatives, and that passion shows in this outstanding book on invertebrates. Combining personal experience with solid entomological fact, Hubbell presents to the average reader fascinating glimpses of a number of invertebrate groups, such as water striders, dragonflies, daddy longlegs, and butterflies. Hubbell shows the life stories of these groups, the role they play in nature, and the people whose lives they affect. Whether beautiful or hideous, valuable or a pest, Hubbell shows them all to be fascinating creatures. Despite that many of them are quite common, some such as black flies too common, the authors show that mysteries still exist with these creatures, how sometimes relatively basic aspects of their lives and roles in nature are mysteries.

This book is very readable and while not too technical is filled with lots of interesting and accurate facts and a wealth of personal experience on the part of the author. If you ever wanted to know more about the butterflies in your garden, the dragonflies wizzing by you over the local lake or pond, or that daddy longlegs in the attic or toolshed, this is the book for you.

A Great Appreciation for Life in its Many Forms
As a young boy I was an avid collector of insects. No specialty - six legs were the only requirement. By about age ten I had exhausted the children's section of the central library and was given the rare honor to check out books from the adult section. Thick books with small print and detailed drawings of insects in their varied life stages. After recently reading Sue Hubbell's book, I wondered why I had wandered away from my early passion.

She describes chapter by chapter the fascinating life that we call bugs. Hubbell begins with Order Lepidoptera, the butterflies, among the more acceptable insects. Other chapters explore midges and gnats, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, bravo (killer) bees, water striders, silverfish, dragonflies and damselflies, gypsy moths, syrphid flies, and camel crickets. The detailed ink drawings scattered throughout the text are quite good.

Reading Broadsides is great fun. Hubbell is intelligent and has a great appreciation for life in its many forms. She introduces us to entomologists (a fascinating life form in themselves) and we share their enthusiasm for their particular study. We take part in a butterfly census in the Rockies, search for ladybug aggregations in the Sierra foothills, track katydids in the Midwest with sophisticated audio electronics, and closely observe an aging daddy longlegs. We discover how University of Kansas acquired a remarkable collection of water striders from a private collector. We learn that classifying insects is not a simple matter; insect evolution has been amazingly complicated, leading to unending debate regarding proper taxonomy. Obviously biodiversity is out of control.

More importantly, Hubbell helps us see the world through the eyes (sometimes many eyes) of individual insect species. I was fascinated by the complex and exhausting mating dance of silverfish. She may have even created a new genre: insect eroticism. (I look at silverfish differently today - but I still chase them away from my books.) Somehow Hubbell even manages to present biting black flies with some sympathy and understanding. Her personal observations - as when stooping over small puddles in early spring to admire the graceful performance of water striders - reveal a world that so often we ignore in our hurry and concern with bigger things.

This is a relaxing book to read. Each chapter largely stands alone and could be read in any sequence, but nonetheless the chapters combine to tell a fascinating story. I highly recommend Broadsides.

Makes insects almost kissable
The bugs are: butterflies, midges and gnats, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, bravo bees, water striders, silverfish, katydids, dragonflies,gypsy moths, syrphid flies, and camel crickets.The writing is lively andreadable, familiar and even warm.This lady can cuddle with insects!Thechapter on ladybugs and how they are captured to be sold to gardeners isparticularly interesting.However the overall content of the book is alittle less than I was hoping for.In particular I could have used moreinformation on the habits of silverfish.

What I hope Hubbell focuses onin her next book is urban insects.I would especially appreciate a popularand detailed account of the lives of Argentine ants since they are the onesthat plague us during the hot days of summer in southern California-or offlour beetles and book beetles and what have you.And it would be nice toread a book that identified the myriad of insects that live in and aroundcontracts with entomologically-based companies that forbid them to disclosetheir knowledge of insect behavior for fear of giving away potentiallyvaluable secrets?! ... Read more

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Reviews (1)

Rehash of Commonly Available Information
~Based on the title of this book, I expected to learn something surprising or "ingenious" about controlling ants. Instead, I found an introduction to ants with little style, and techniques of control that are easily (and more cheaply) found in articles on the web or in magazines -- techniques such as keeping your kitchen counters free of food, buying ant baits at the store, and hiring a professional when the invasion gets bad.

The book notes that it's important to know the species of ants~~ in order to control them, but it fails to provide sufficient detail about each species to determine what type are in your home. The book also fails to distinguish between species in its recommendations for control.

The text is scant and padded with similarly high-level (and thus not terribly useful) information about other pest insects.~ ... Read more

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"Wherever you are, there is a spider within a meter of you."So begins this engaging introduction to the spider, the dominant terrestrial carnivore on the planet. Photographed up close, the spiders in this slender text display an otherworldly beauty. But it's the text that makes this book shine. Even veteran arachnophobes will be charmed by author Adrienne Mason's lively writing about the diversity of spiders and her delight in the strange details of their eating habits and sex lives.

Mason, a naturalist and author of several children's books, writes clearly about the often bizarre anatomy and habits of spiders. She doesn't shy away from scientific terms and provides a useful guide to common spider families in an appendix, which includes graceful line drawings illustrating the distinctive features of each family. The four chapters cover the basics: spider diversity and ecology, sex and reproduction, predation, and spider lore. A sampling of Mason's eye for telling details: more than 2 million spiders live in a single acre of grassy meadow; those spiders consume nearly 50,000 pounds of prey per acre in a single year; the whirling Italian dance known as the tarantella was thought to cure illness caused by tarantula bites.

The World of the Spider provides a revealing glimpse at the striking diversity and biology of this feared and misunderstood group. After reading this book, you'll appreciate spiders and their importance, even if you still shriek when you find one in the tub. More adventurous readers who want to identify spiders in the field should consult other works, including the useful and inexpensive identification guide by Levi and Levi, Spiders and Their Kin. --Pete Holloran ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

A comprehensive review of the honeybees of Africa on a subspecies as well as by country basis. Includes an updated multivariate analysis of the subspecies based on the merger of the Ruttner database (Oberursel) and that of Hepburn & Radloff (Grahamstown) for nearly 20,000 bees. Special emphasis is placed on natural zones of hybridisation and introgression of different populations; seasonal cycles of development in different ecological-climatological zones of the continent; swarming, migration and absconding; and an analysis of the bee flora of the continent. The text is supplemented by tables containing quantitative data on all aspects of honeybee biology, and by continental and regional maps. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Joy of gardening
I thought this book was like an encylapidia to gardening, it had so much helpful information, and was so easy to understand and use. If you are a first or pro gardener this book will fasinate you, and give you intresting garning ideas. This book is a must have. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Poorly written and very unhelpful
In the introduction the author tells us he has kept a number of millipedes over a number of years. He then goes on to state; "Overall, I've had limited success" and "I admit to beingconfounded by some millipedes I've tried to keep". Thanks for the honesty, but I don't want to read your book if you don't know what you're talking about. In his section on care he talks about regularly removing dead millipedes from the tank. I don't know about other millipede owners, but that's not something that happens on a routine basis for me. He also says he has never had success breeding Giant Africans - from my own experience and from ever other source I've read these guys are happy to give you lots of babies. In fact, mine are mating as I write. Other major flaws in the book:

-The species he lists are only a few of those commonly available in the millipede trade.

-He has a whole paragraph on how it's bad to drop you millipede on the floor (though he once dropped one from about four feet and it was fine)

-His overall writing is unprofessional and wandering, he claims to know almost nothing with any certainty.

-There are 7 pages total in the book about centipedes, including one full-page photo and several half-page ones.

If you want to know about the basic care of millipedes, the common species, and where to buy them, go to:

http://www.geocities.com/millipedes_uk/

And seriously, unless you want the color photos, don't buy this book.

Rare but Mediocre
I am rating this book with 4 stars, even though I think that it leaves a lot to be desired regarding the care of millipedes.There are not many books on millipede care... so do get this one if you are interested in millipedes.However, this book does contradict itself in a couple of areas... and is limited in what it teaches... so do some web searches and find articles on the web regarding the care of millipedes.CentralPets.com has a report on Madagascan Orange Legged Millipedes, for example, that is very beneficial with many good points.Most people overclean their millipede enclosures... if you do not overfeed them, there is no need to keep cleaning; cleaning too much will kill them.Rotten Oak wood and branches, which many pedes like, must be thouroughly sterilized, though, before placing them into a terrarium... or various invertebrate enemies, such as unwanted centipedes, can enter your terrarium, killing the millipedes.Heating and freezing (in the freezer overnight) wood and branches... will help keep invertebrate enemies to a minimum.

not enough about centipedes
This is a beutifully illustrated book with lots of excellent pictures. The section dealing with millipedes is an accomplishment all by itself, not only because this is the first book to deal with millipedes, "there is no other" but it tells you all you could possibly want to know about millipedes. Unfortunatley if the author did not like centipedes (which he seems to state in the book) He should have only made this a book only about millipedes. I was dissapointed that there was only avery small section on centipedes near the end describing centipedes, but at least he does explain general care and a few species. If this book had shared it's pages equally with millipedes and centipedes i would have given it 5 stars. But if you really are a beginner and don't know much about millipedes and centipedes i recommend buying this book i'ts definatley worth the money. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Fun reading
My third grade daughter and I found this a fun and informative book. It takes some of the mystery out of the little creatures we live with.

Capitivate young readers with this one
Librarians and teachers looking for books for reluctant readers, take note of this title. With facts about fleas, mites and other tiny human-loving insects, this book will fascinate (and gross out) even the most resistant reader. Great for book talks, I've used this title in many school visits leaving everyone scratching furiously and begging for more.

You Will Never Be Alone.
Did you know that fleas are highly specie-specific (e.g., the fleas that prefer dogs don't like cats or people)? Did you know that the lice found on the bodies of people are completely different from the lice inhabiting the head or pubic region (a.k.a. crabs)? Do you care?

Well, I do. This is a captivating book about the many little creatures which make us their home. From the little mites that eat dead skin cells to the various flora and fauna which reside in the digestive system, this book covers the lifeforms, good and bad, which have evolved with us just as we have evolved with them. As the old saying goes, we can't live without them and we can't live with them. ... Read more

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In the estimation of former New York Times science editor Nick Wade, the life span of a newspaper article is typically shorter than the life expectancy of your average bug. Hoping to do right by both of these often misunderstood and underappreciated creations--both science reportage and bugs (insects, for the most part, with a few arachnids thrown in for good measure)--Wade has collected 48 articulate, approachable, and densely informative articles that appeared in his newspaper's Science Times section, everything from "Cicadas: They're Back!" to "Spanish Fly Works, at Least for Fire-Colored Beetles."

Surely deserving of a lifetime achievement award for global domination, the class Insecta (and its eight-legged arachnid brethren) has doggedly proliferated into nearly every ecological niche imaginable, spawning some 15 million to 30 million species and accumulating a biomass that--in the United States alone--outweighs humans by a factor of 50. Broken down into loose thematic sections like "Rituals of Insect Courtship" and "Attack and Defense," the well-written, scientifically rigorous series tackles a broad range of creepy-crawly topics, with forays into both the ooh-ahh ("Serenade of Color Woos Pollinators to Flowers") and the eww-gross ("An Elusive Moth with a 15-Inch Tongue Should Be Out There.") Fun and often fascinating reading for anyone so inclined, the book is easy to pick up and put down. (Includes all illustrations originally published with articles.) --Paul Hughes ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Some fascinating natural histories
This book preserves some of the best of the NY Times - Science Times writing.Most fascinating to me are the stories of social insects, such as bees swarming around a hornet and producing enough heat to "fry them" or ants and fungus cohabitating.Also fascinating were the insects not normally thought of as social - but occurring in groups; such as 16,000 dung beetles on one elephant patty, and the communal tropical spider in groups of 165,000 in Mexico (sounds like a scene out of Harry Potter). The spiders of course aren't insects, but thrown in for good measure.

There are also fascinating stories of extremes such as the Saharan silver ants that survive in 140 degree F heat.Also interesting are tales of the entomologist, Dr. Raffensperger, the consulting insect detective, or the conservation biologist who is willing to doom the "Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly" to extinction.These short essays, and occasional illustrations are delightful. Lest you think insects inconsequential, they outweigh humans by a factor of 50. ... Read more

Book Description

The Phenological Fly takes the mystery out of meeting and matching the fabled insect super-hatches of the West with a proven and original approach to enhancing angling success. This guide links the appearance of the insect super-hatches (their phenology) to the blooming of native streamside wildflowers, shrubs and trees. Illustrated with detailed, full-color photographs of insects with their corresponding blooms. ... Read more