The Science Times Book of Insects

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