Review Sex on Six Legs "waxes exuberant [on insects] over nine consistently delightful chapters... [Zuk is] wry, mischievous and conversational. The book can be unsettling at times, but it persistently aroused in this reviewer a wriggling, six-legs-up delight."--New York Times Book Review"Smart, engaging...Zuk approaches her subject with such humor and enthusiasm for the intricacies of insect life, even bug-phobes will relish her account."- Publishers Weekly, starred"...one of the most readable books about insect behavior...Zuk has the uncanny ability to take what most of us consider just plain creepy and turn it into the fascinating and the revelatory."-Booklist"A global sampling of the clever lives and loves of our six-legged friends. Zuk's chapters, particularly on social insects, are rich in examples... Plenty of intriguing questions to ponder as Zuk informs adults in a droll style that may also turn on younger readers. After all, entomology is still a field that can begin, as it did for her, with venturing into the yard to collect stuff in a glass jar."-Kirkus Reviews"Incest, democracy, tyranny, sexual cannibalism: insects have them all, and more. In Sex on Six Legs, Marlene Zuk gives insects, the animal kingdom's unseen majority, their full, marvelous due."-Carl Zimmer, author of The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution and A Planet of Viruses Read more From the Inside Flap A remarkable tour of the world of insects that questions our long-held assumptions about cooperation, family loyalty, the nature of personality, and teaching an old bug new tricks Insects are capable of incredibly complex behavior, despite having brains often the size of a poppy seed. How do they accomplish feats that look like human activity—expressing personality, using language, nurturing their offspring—via completely different pathways from our own? What if anything, might our own large brains might be for, if the world’s smallest animals seem equally adept at performing complex tasks? Sex on Six Legs is a startling and exciting book that provides answers to these questions and many more. Zuk, a writer praised as “thought-provoking and sublimely witty” (The Boston Globe), uses her decades of research on insects to illuminate the unheralded capabilities of a variety of astoundingly accomplished species. She offers us a glimpse of the parenting techniques of the earwig, a thorough examination of the high-stakes world of ant warfare, and the intriguing possibilities of personality in wasps. Gracefully written, deeply learned, and wonderfully eye-opening, Sex on Six Legs opens a window on the fascinating, weird world populated by the innumerable insects around us. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
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