An enthusiastic, witty, and informative introduction to the world of insects and why we—and the planet we inhabit—could not survive without them.
Insects comprise roughly half of the animal kingdom.
Buzz, Sting, Bite is an essential introduction to the little creatures that make the world go round..
Life as we know it depends on these small creatures.
With ecologist Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson as our capable, entertaining guide into the insect world, we’ll learn that there is more variety among insects than we can even imagine and the more you learn about insects, the more fascinating they become.
They control organisms that are harmful to humans.
They provide food for other animals, such as birds and bats.
They pollinate flowers, including crops that we depend on.
Insects turn dead plants and animals into soil.
Blowfly larva can clean difficult wounds; flour beetle larva can digest plastic; several species of insects have been essential to the development of antibiotics.
The fruit fly was essential to medical and biological research experiments that resulted in six Nobel prizes.
The ink that was used to write the Declaration of Independence was derived from galls on oak trees, which are induced by a small wasp.
No cocoa, no chocolate.
In fact, life would be impossible without them.
Most of us know that we would not have honey without honeybees, but without the pinhead-sized chocolate midge, cocoa flowers would not pollinate.
Most of us think life would be better without bugs.
There are insects that have ears on their knees, eyes on their penises, and tongues under their feet.
They live everywhere—deep inside caves, 18,000 feet high in the Himalayas, inside computers, in Yellowstone’s hot springs, and in the ears and nostrils of much larger creatures.
An enthusiastic, witty, and informative introduction to the world of insects and why we—and the planet we inhabit—could not survive without them.
Insects comprise roughly half of the animal kingdom
