You Made Bugwatching Number One!

I learned recently that my new book, Bugwatching: The Art, Joy, and Importance of Observing Insects, is, or was, number one in the "Outdoor and Nature Reference" category of new releases for Amazon books. This would not have happened without your loyalty, preorders, and promotion among your friends and neighbors. Thank you!

I do not habitually pay attention to rankings like these, but maybe I should. Someone on social media tagged me in a post by fellow author Rebecca Lexa, who has a new book of her own, The Everyday Naturalist. She held number one until my book "dethroned" hers. Obviously, we are both on "team nature," so I hope you will consider purchasing her book, too. We have already agreed to trade books between us, and I can't wait to read hers.

People frequently ask me which avenue of purchase benefits me the most, and my answer that there is no great difference from one outlet to another. Personally, I like supporting local, independent booksellers, and BookShop. Electronic versions of the book do not benefit authors much, but if you prefer that format, please buy that. I cannot sign it for you, though.

Attention to my book is not all about a revenue stream. I may not live to see much in the way of royalties, as it takes awhile to break even with the initial advances an author receives ahead of the book's release. My entire goal is to get more people excited about the natural world around them, and insects are a perfect vehicle for that.

When you are curious, you go to the effort to learn more, and the more you learn the more curious you become. Your passion swells, and with that comes a commitment to protecting other species and the ecosystems they inhabit. You also share your personal discoveries with others on platforms like iNaturalist, Project Noah, Bugguide, and others. Maybe you write a book, or decide to keep a nature journal.

Thank you again for your unwavering support for what I do. Please let me know how else I can advance your own endeavors.

Stay tuned, in the next week or so I will have a remarkable personal story to share with you.

Book Review: Insectorama

One of the benefits of having written one or more books is that as an author you are then presented with opportunities to review proposals, manuscripts, and published books by other writers in your realm of expertise. The most recent book to cross my desk in this way is Insectorama: The Marvelous World of Insects, by Lisa Voisard. I could not be more favorably impressed.

Insectorama is promoted as a juvenile literature, and it won the JP Redouté Children’s Book Prize. It is a substantial work of 224 pages, suitable for adults, too. It is as close to a perfect introduction to insects, and their place in habitats, ecosystems, and human enterprise and culture, as I can imagine. The “North American edition” is what I received, a translation from the original French version featuring a European focus. The book is divided into three parts, beginning with a series of portraits of over eighty common insect species found in North America. The second part invites the reader to “Go on, take a closer look!” The third section presents several topics related to the life of insects, their enemies, why insects are disappearing, and how we can mitigate insect decline.

Voisard’s unique and stunning illustrations define the entire work. The renderings are bold and deceptively basic, without sacrificing much in the way of accuracy and detail. Food plants, prey, life cycles, and other context are presented, along with icons for the order the insect is classified under, the time of day the creature is active, and the habitat it occupies.

The only obvious mistake that I found was that the pupa stage, in every species depicted that has complete metamorphosis, was labeled as “nymph.” I suspect this is an error in translation from the French, not a fact-checking oversight. Entomologist Mathilde Gaudrea vetted the text, in fact, along with other experts.

The layout of the book remains its greatest strength. Every page, or every other page, is a different earthtone color, warm and inviting. The contrast with the insect depicted is therefore not stark and overwhelming. You are invited into the life of the creature, the flowers it visits, the aquatic realm it lives in, or the place it perches.

My admiration for this work extends to the marketing campaign surrounding it. I learned of the book from Izzy Krause at Myrick Marketing & Media, LLC, working for its client, Helvetiq Publishing, that produced this North American version. The blurb sheet was well done summary of the book and its mission to stimulate readers to view insects in a new and fascinating light.

By sheer coincidence, I am at work on a book that aims to achieve similar outcomes in recruiting new “bugwatchers,” and Insectorama helped me greatly by reminding me of approaches to observing insects that I have long since forgotten because they have become habit. I therefore recommend this book to science translators (science communicators, sci-comm people) as a good refresher when interacting with the public.

With so much sensationalized news, and misinformation about insects in this day and age, it is a delight to find a vehicle with a more subdued approach, that still manages to evoke fascination and excitement, wrapped in a little empathy for the tentative and squeamish among us. I hope it is a blueprint for future authors of natural history books.

Insectorama retails for under $30.00 U.S. It is hardbound, and weighty. I am also likely to consider other merchandise from Lisa Voisard.

Book Review: Underbug

Termites exist at the intersection of biology, chemistry, ecology, engineering, and perhaps even philosophy. In Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology, author Lisa Margonelli masterfully weaves all of these elements together, and then some. She manages to remain in that sweet spot between total participation in the story, and complete detachment, never overtaking the spotlight of her subjects, both insectian and human, but still revealing the personal impacts of where her investigations took her. She maintains empathy with the reader while taking them on a globe-trotting journey.

Underbug has more to say about humanity than you would expect in a book ostensibly about insects, let alone insects we consider economic pests. This is about where curiosity and imagination can take you. It ventures from the microscopic world of termite gut fauna to the megascopic, landscape-writing engineering of millions of diminutive members of a termite colony. How are they so successful? How can we harness their power to digest cellulose and use it to manufacture “grassoline?” What lessons exist for how to reclaim an abandoned mine and turn it back to its native grandeur?

It may be cliché to say that a book has something for everyone, but this one truly does, provided you are prone to a fascination with science, or relish contemplating the planet and our own place on it.

The book is divided into six parts, each one set off by a black-and-white illustration that gives the impression, appropriately, of a woodcut print (they are linoleum block prints by Thomas Shahan). The dust jacket has intentional holes in it, as if the book has already been “digested” by its very subject. How perfect. Margonelli manages to have a reverence for both termites and science, but never comes off as preaching or dogmatic. There is humor here and there, and the prose are descriptive enough to put you right in the center of things.

As a failed academic myself, I felt overwhelmed occasionally by the mathematics, genetics, and technological aspects of the stories (there are several), but remained captivated by the human characters and, of course, the mysteries of the insects.

Margonelli ultimately questions the accepted scientific course of the abstraction of natural processes, whether it has its limits, or if it is even a potential failing of our own species. Are we too attached to the idea that every other species, every habitat, serve us first, to justify its existence?

Without giving too much away, the conclusions reached are, as one might expect, inconclusive; for termites exist at the intersection of the known, the unknown, and the unknowable. Sometimes the biggest question for a researcher or engineer is when to give up.

Underbug was published in 2018, by Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. It is 303 pages, including notes and index. This is as much an adventure book as it is a revealing glimpse into what defines science in the twenty-first century. Highly recommended.

Book Review: Flower Bugs

I must preface this review by stating that the author, Angella Moorehouse, and publisher, Heather Holm, are personal friends. That is not why I am conflicted in my reaction to this book. Neither is it because I view this book as being in competition with any of my own works. We cannot have enough literature devoted to promoting public understanding and appreciation of insects. It boils down in part to my own biases and expectations. With that, you will still receive an honest appraisal.

Pollination Press, LLC produces plant-based books about insects, usually restricted to a particular geographic region. Holm's comfort zone is clearly in botany, though her prior books about bees and wasps, as they relate to flowering plants, demonstrate a command of general entomological knowledge, and dedication to thorough research. There is no question that her books deliver accurate, factual information. From my perspective, as an entomologist with little familiarity or interest in plants, I immediately see what is "missing" in terms of species, even families, because those insects are not associated with forbs.

There is a desperate need for more books that illustrate the ecological networks of different organisms, but Flower Bugs: A Guide to Flower-Associated True Bugs of the Midwest is limited to the flowers of herbaceous flowering plants, and almost exclusively those true bugs that may play a role in pollination, or those species that frequent flowers as a place to ambush other pollinators. The territory covered is eight states (Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, Indian, and Ohio), and adjacent southern Ontario, Canada. The book is in fact based mostly on a detailed survey of locations in western and central Illinois, over a period of seven years.

The true bugs treated are further restricted to the suborder Heteroptera, which includes the larger, more obvious examples like stink bugs, assassin bugs, mirid plant bugs, and seed bugs, but leaves out the families of aquatic bugs, plus the other two suborders that include cicadas, leafhoppers, spittlebugs, and aphids. All of these specifics are stated explicitly in the introduction of the book.

The layout of Flower Bugs includes the trademark features of Pollination Press' other books: prolific and quality imagery, geographic range maps, seasonal distribution bars showing what months the adult insect is present, tables of plant species associated with each insect species addressed, diagrams of taxonomic relationships, a glossary, checklists, and a visual index.

The front matter of the book is, as usual for this press, presented to near perfection in degree of detail, and coverage of morphology and ecology. It is an excellent introduction to true bugs as a whole, for the intended audience of native plant gardeners, naturalists, resource management personnel, and others.

The species accounts cover the overall geographic range, variation in physical appearance, life cycle, feeding, habitat, and native plant associations. The images are occasionally redundant, but frequently include photos of the immature stages, which most field guides fail to do. In cases of the mirid plant bugs, assassin bugs, and other families for which there are few flower associates, there are photos of other species for comparison, and to better indicate the full diversity of these groups. Given the lack of any other contemporary guides to true bugs, this gesture is appreciated.

The last book to cover the true bugs for a popular audience was probably Bugs of the World, by George C. McGavin, published in 1993 and 1999 by Blandford, an imprint of Cassell, in London. Back then, the true bugs were classified much differently. In 1978, How to Know the True Bugs, by James A. Slater and Richard M. Baranowski, was published by Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers in Dubuque, Iowa, as part of their "Pictured Key Nature Series." That reference also covered the suborder Heteroptera, but assumed the user had a pinned specimen and a microscope at hand.

The fact that Flower Bugs is the most up-to-date popular reference to North American Heteroptera, no matter how limited the scope, is enough to recommend it. You will no doubt find yourself stalking the true bugs in your own yard, neighborhood park, or other favorite habitat. You can be confident that this book will provide you with an accurate ecological perspective, and interpretation of the behaviors of these insects.

Book Review: Wasps, by Heather Holm

That “other” wasp book, the one that is not mine? Spoiler alert: It’s good. Excellent in fact. It is tempting as a niche author to view your colleagues as competitors, but that does a disservice to the profession, and undermines the common goals of influencing public perceptions and initiating actions. This book is a fine complement to Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect, and exceeds it in certain respects.

This is a surprisingly large (11 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches), heavy, hardbound volume of 415 pages, with much larger images than Holm’s previous books. Holm self-publishes through Pollination Press, LLC, and exercises great attention to detail and organization in all her works. Personally, I am not a fan of the liberal use of codes, tables and sidebars, but compared to the two other books of hers in my library, those strategies are minimized here. The book is decidedly not as “busy” in its layout as I was expecting. Considering the digital age, my minor complaint may reflect the literature I grew up with, and be out of step with contemporary audiences. The species accounts include large images labeled with key identification characters. This is an outstanding idea that is absent even from most field guides.

While I have not read the book from cover to cover, I have read enough to conclude that Holm’s research was exceedingly comprehensive, and highlights the historical role of women in contributing to our knowledge of wasp biology. She includes an extensive bibliography of her sources, plus a glossary, and her trademark “planting guide” for which native plants in your region are most attractive and beneficial to wasps and other pollinators. Holm conducted a survey of flower-visiting wasps for eastern North America via iNaturalist to crowdsource observations of pollinator associations, and also drew from other contemporary resources to complement the existing scientific literature. We need more innovative approaches like this.

There are two subtitles to Wasps. One is “A Guide for Eastern North America,” and the other is “Their Biology, Diversity, and Role as Beneficial Insects and Pollinators of Native Plants.” No matter how you define eastern North America, the contents of this book work for you. Considering Holm is from Minnesota, I was pleasantly surprised to see many wasp species from the southeast U.S. included in the book. The natural history information presented is accurate, thorough, and captivating.

There are certain limitations to Wasps. This book is driven by an interest in plants, especially native plants and how they can and should be used in landscaping. This is the overarching theme for all of Holm’s books. Consequently, wasps that do not visit flowers regularly are given only passing mention in this book. Sawflies, horntails, gall wasps, ichneumon wasps, braconid wasps, and most of the chalcidoid wasps are absent in the species accounts. All of our friends among the social wasps, the mason wasps, sand wasps, spider wasps, and their conspicuous kin, are treated in detail. You would not want a book that could double as an anvil anyway.

The bottom line is that this is an exquisite volume deserving of consideration for literary awards, and certainly worthy of inclusion in the library of all naturalists. Placing insects in the larger context of ecology and human enterprise needs to be a more common treatment across all media. Holm is a master of subtle advocacy for underdog insects, and other authors can learn from her style and presentation. Please visit the Pollinator Press website to place your order.

Book Review: Silent Sparks

Sara Lewis won me over from the very beginning of her book Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies, then kept me captivated right through to the "Notes" in the back. This offering from Princeton University Press is literally the gift that keeps on giving. More on that in a moment, but prepare to be dazzled and amazed in the meantime.

The thing that got my attention right away occurred in the preface. Dr. Lewis writes "Confessions of a Scientist Enraptured," and strikes a chord with the major reason I dropped out of college:

"And I've tried hard to retain my sense of wonder. But wonder, it turns out, doesn't garner much respect within the realm of academic science. We academics are rewarded for our scholarly productivity----getting research grants and writing technical articles that report our discoveries. Few scientists openly admit to being motivated by wonder. By some unspoken rule, a scientist's feeling of awe for the natural world must be kept under wraps; to acknowledge wonder is tantamount to unreason, and therefore treason."

The fact that Lewis is able to not only maintain her own sense of wonder, but actively spark it in her readers, is the whole heart of this book.

Photinus sp. firefly on a farm

Lewis does not talk over the head of her audience, but neither does she talk down to non-scientists. There is a glossary in the back of the book, but she defines technical terms the first time she uses them in the text. While the book is not lavishly illustrated, her words paint vivid pictures on the pages that lack graphics. You are transported to the dewy meadow at midnight, and the laboratory back on campus. You gaze with new perspective off the back porch at your own lawn; and travel to far-off lands to witness synchronous spectacles that defy your imagination.

Photuris sp. firefly

You also meet a number of Lewis' colleagues and mentors, and get a feel for who they are and what motivates them to study fireflies. It would be easy to go overboard and focus mostly on the human element in the story of any invertebrate, as many authors do (Sue Hubbell, Richard Conniff for example), but Lewis recognizes the ability of organisms to be sufficiently captivating in their own right, and retains focus on the fireflies, not the scientists studying them. I heartily applaud this aspect of her writing.

Because fireflies are so diverse, and with few exceptions not impactful to humans in the economic sense, we consequently know very little about them. Most of the advances in our collective knowledge have come within the past couple of decades, thanks in part to our ability to deconstruct DNA sequences and reconstruct new paths of evolutionary relationships. Silent Sparks provides an outstanding summary of our history of scientific inquiry into the Lampyridae, and then encourages the reader to enlist herself or himself as a citizen scientist to expand our horizons even more. By the end of the book you will be writing the author in application to be on her lab team.

Pyropyga sp. "dark firefly"

There are few errors or omissions in this book to even bother to nit-pick, but one baffles me completely. In the chapter "A Field Guide to Common Fireflies of North America," the genus Pyropyga, one of the "dark fireflies," is inexplicably omitted entirely. Pyropyga is by far the most common firefly where I live on the Front Range of Colorado, and also in the southwest U.S., but species are found across the entire continent. I have seen them virtually every place I have ever lived.

Pyractomena sp. firefly

Ok, so how does this book keep on giving? Lewis has complemented her treatise with an interactive book blog that is an ingenious way of keeping you up to date on the latest scientific findings, providing more information for specific species and genera, and otherwise involving her readers in the process of discovery. She has also given a TED Talk on the subject of fireflies. Oh, and don't forget the book itself has a whole chapter called "Stepping Out - Further Firefly Adventures." There you will learn how to become your own scientist and contribute to what we know about fireflies. The "Notes" are rich in additional publications, links to online resources, and other material.

Ellychnia sp. "dark firefly"

This hardcover work, priced at $29.95 U.S., is a must addition to the library of every naturalist, even if they specialize in other organisms. It is a brilliantly organized volume rich in both content and inspiration. Well done, Sara Lewis.

Review: Pollinators of Native Plants

Newly-minted U.S. citizen Heather Holm didn’t wait for official government recognition before delivering a gift to her fellow Americans. Seriously, she became a citizen just last Tuesday. Earlier in the month her self-published book Pollinators of Native Plants rolled off the printer at Hillcrest Media Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The title does not do the book justice, as this is a comprehensive primer on garden ecosystems and how to create them.

Heather’s background in graphic design serves her well in the unique organization and layout of the book. When I hear “self-published” I often expect poor paper and image quality, and an overall substandard product. That is most definitely not the case here. Images are sharp, the paper durable, and the cover is glossy and professional. There is no obvious compromise for cost-savings and the retail price of $29.95 is perfectly reasonable.

Beyond production values, this book is a labor of love for native plants and the insects and other arthropods that thrive in a well-designed and nurtured garden. Heather observed, documented, and photographed her own garden for a decade before fusing her findings with other researched information to yield the book.

Not only is the text accurate, the information is communicated in a user-friendly manner that does not talk down to a novice, or disrespect the experience and knowledge of an entomologist or botanist. This is a fine line to walk and Holm does it beautifully. Scientific terms are defined when they are first introduced, but there is also a glossary in the back. All the organisms imaged, as near as I can tell, are identified accurately, even if that means only to genus, tribe, or family. This is important because not every creature can be identified to species from a photo.

What I find truly unique about this book is that the author recognizes that a garden is an ecosystem. The gardener is a steward who works best when he or she understands how nature is working. So, Holm makes it known that not all pollinators are created equal. Most, in fact, are “flower visitors” in search of nectar. Those insects play other important roles, however, as predators, parasites, and parasitoids of pest and nuisance insects. The inclusion of those “other” bugs makes the book an invaluable resource all by itself.

Taking those complex relationships and making them understandable is a gift, but making them relevant to a gardener and homeowner is even more challenging. Again, the author succeeds. She goes on to furnish concrete action plans that can be used to enhance pollinator conservation, increase the value of the garden to surrounding wild ecosystems, and making the garden blend seamlessly with those natural areas.

The bulk of the book explores native plant and insect interactions for three basic landscapes: prairie, woodland edge, and wetland edge. It should be noted that the regional focus of the book is the upper Midwest (Great Lakes, plus Iowa, Minnesota). A typical two-page spread looks like this:

One page discusses the plant, while the opposite page explores the range of pollinators, flower-visitors, and/or predators and parasites, even herbivores, that one is likely to encounter on the plant. Additional, following pages may also be devoted to those relationships. Most of the insects have their own “pollinator profile” or similar biography in the far-right column on the appropriate page.

References, charts, and a visual index of the insects are located in the back of the book, along with examples of native plant garden diagrams, and the glossary and traditional index.

It is a joy to be able to recommend a book like this that embraces more than just plants and their pollinators; and that empowers the gardener to work with nature rather than in spite of Her.

Please see more about this book at its dedicated website, and make your purchase there, too. Authors are notorious for investing any extra income in their next project, and I certainly hope Heather Holm will continue to produce such valuable literature far into the future. Meanwhile, you will want to follow her blog, Restoring the Landscape With Native Plants.

Spider Sunday: Itsy Bitsy Spider

The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Teeny tineus, is one of the world’s most common and popular spider species. Its life history includes some unique behaviors; and the history of its discovery and scientific description is both mysterious and creative. The spider is amazingly elusive, hence there is not one single image of the species known to exist.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider is also known as the “Incy Wincy Spider,” “Eency Weency Spider,” “Ipsy Whispy Spider,” and “Ipsy Dipsy Spider.” The species was first described in the nursery rhyme “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” but the words cannot be traced to one individual. Still, the anonymous description was published in the prestigious journal Mother Goose.

The paper has been reprinted hundreds of times, and even set to music. Among the recording artists who have performed the manuscript are Carly Simon (1987, from the album Coming Around Again), Little Richard (1991, from his children’s album Shake It All About), and EliZe (from her 2006 debut album In Control).

Part of the reason for this spider’s apparent scarcity is its preferred habitat: The downspouts of roofline rain gutters. Only one spider occupies each vertical pipe, and it is not an easy life. Down comes the rain and washes the spider out. Luckily, out comes the sun and dries up all the rain. Then the Itsy Bitsy Spider climbs up the spout again. The persistence of the spider is legendary, as it repeats this behavior over and over. The spiders invariably have no flood insurance, yet insist on retaining their residences.

The other reason the spider is seldom seen is that it is very small….Itsy Bitsy in fact. No one knows how long each Itsy Bitsy Spider lives, how it reproduces, the nature of its egg sac (one assumes it is waterproof), or what kind of prey the spiders feed on. Clearly, there is much yet to be learned about the species, and subsequently put into rhyming verses.

What?! You don’t know what day this is? Happy April first, friends.