Review by Choice Review
Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. People are attracted to aggregations even if those assemblies are of insects. Of course insects crowd around food, but also they gather for comfort, protection, work, and courtship. Somehow, the idea is unsettling that "lowly" insects seek out each other's company. They act just like us. That thought just might change the urge to grab a rolled newspaper whenever something with six legs (or eight, or 48) comes into view. Waldbauer (emeritus, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), with his clear writing and the handsome design of the book (even the marginalia are animated as the pages turn), will engage entomologists and entomophobes alike. Though not intended as a scholarly work, this book does include an extensive bibliography of current citations. It is warm and open while still providing the details to stimulate further study. Those who think they know it all will read it for pleasure. Those who are seeking more knowledge will not be disappointed as it is tight, correct, and careful with the facts but inspiring nonetheless. All levels. G. Stevens; University of New Mexico
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Each chapter neatly forecasts the subject of the next, betraying this book's possible origins as instructional lectures. Every chapter is, however, so full of fascination, so well conveyed in clear, congenial, and precise prose, that many readers may want to audit professor Waldbauer's next course. The overall topic is occasionally social insects: how and why do they get together when they do? Their reasons include finding mates, species self-defense, subduing prey, going where the food is, and even controlling their own microclimates--that's why tent caterpillars make tents. Waldbauer unfolds all this buggy cooperation in absorbing accounts of particular species: monarch butterflies, ladybugs, locusts, corn rootworms, etc. What a relief to learn that the Rocky Mountain locusts, the legendary sky-darkening swarmers that devoured every plant in their path, are probably extinct, and what a smug, modern pleasure to read about those other swarmers, people, and the silly religious things they used to do to try to get rid of insect hordes. However, those aren't the only satisfactions the book affords. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a witty and informative look at insect sociology, Waldbauer (The Birder's Bug Book), University of Illinois emeritus professor of entomology, examines many of the reasons that insects form groups. The groups may be as small as a handful of sawfly larvae feeding together on a single needle of a jack pine, or as large as millions of monarch butterflies huddled together on cypress trees to protect themselves from the elements. Or they may be as ephemeral as the swarms of mayflies looking for mates during their 24-hour adult lives, or as long-lived as populations of billions of locusts eating their way across Africa. Insects come together for a host of reasons, Waldbauer explains: to find mates, to avoid predators, to enhance their food-gathering abilities, to manipulate their environment and to subdue prey. In each case, Waldbauer provides evocative descriptions of particular species' behaviors while discussing the underlying evolutionary reasons for that behavior. In summarizing hundreds of scientists' research, Waldbauer finds a sensitive balance between being overly technical and simplistic. His sheer love of insects is so obvious and infectious that even entomophobes are likely to get caught up in his excitement. 14 line illus. not seen by PW. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
