What Good are Bugs?: Insects in the Web of Life [Hardcover]

The subtitle, "Insects in the Web of Life," really says what this book is about as well as it can be said in just a few words: all life forms are interconnected and interdependent and part of the larger web of life. It isn't just the pollination of our plants by insects that is irreplaceable, nor their control of one another, nor their policing of the landscape, nor even their position near the base of the entire food chain that serves us, but it is their gigantic presence in nearly all the diverse ecologies of the planet that cannot be replaced. Remove the insects and the entire eco-structure collapses. Demonstrating this truth, Waldbauer's text emphasizes how bugs interact especially with plants, how plants take advantage of them as well as how they take advantage of plants for subsistence and reproduction, and how in many cases a symbiosis has been reached so that plant and animal work together for their mutual good. The stories of ants protecting trees and of wasps and bees and others pollinating plants are marvelous tales of intricate mutualisms honed by nature over the eons, tales so startling as to defy belief, except that we know they are true. An orchid shaped like female insect, giving off the female pheromone so as to entice the male insect to "mate" in order to spread the plant's pollen, is one example. The nutritious elaisomes that grow on the seeds of plants that attract and feed ants so that they might distribute the plant's seeds and even protect the plant from predators, is another. The ants that live on acacias that can actually smell large animals (including humans) and thereby congregate on the branches nearest the approaching animal ready to swarm and bite should the animal dare to touch the tree, is still another.

Waldbauer shows us what bugs and their stories can teach us about the nature of life itself--what life is truly like beyond the artificial confines of human culture--and not so incidentally, about ourselves, if we care to recognize the many affinities between our lives, especially our economic lives, and that of bugs, most notably of course the social insects who herd animals, plant crops and harvest them, who fight battles and construct dwellings.

I could go on and on, but just let me say that this is the most informative book on bugs that I have ever read (and I've read dozens) and one of the most readable. Moreover it is beautifully designed (by Marianne Perlak) and beautifully edited (by Nancy Clemente). The black, white and gray illustrations of bugs and plants by Meredith Waterstraat are elegant and serve as a fine complement to the text. This book should win some awards. It is the kind of book you might want to buy for yourself and to give as a present to anyone interested in nature from gardeners to professors of biology. This is a gem that can be appreciated by and benefit both professionals and the general public.

It is not surprising that Waldbauer's first chapter is about pollination. Most people know that insects are the pollinators of many flowers and other plants, but people didn't always know this. Pretty flowers were said to be merely a manifestation of God's eagerness to give us pleasure. It was only in 1793 that an observer wrote about flowers, scent, and nectar as a lures for insects, and the discovery that the plants could not be fertilized without them. Most of the plants we eat are fertilized by insects. Insects also help plants by spreading their seeds, thus keeping sibling plants from breeding with each other and spreading the range of the plants. Dung beetles roll the seeds away, locusts carry undigested seeds in their guts, and ants and termites bring seeds into their nests. Ants also protect plants; a species of ant lives on the acacia tree and when these ants smell a mammal, they go on alert ready to sting anything that would take a nibble of a leaf. They also clear out the plants that live nearby which would compete for the acacia's nutrients. Insects directly help animals, besides being food for them. Many birds bathe in ants ("anting") to get their mites and lice eaten away. Ants protect birds in particular trees, and other birds deliberately make their homes near wasp nests. Insects do harm plants and animals, but in Waldbauer's larger evolutionary view, this is merely a limitation of population growth, a prevention of a species burning out in uncontrolled profusion. Harvester ants, for instance, compete with rodents for seeds, and thus keep the rodent population down. Insects are vital in the role of cleaning up. They clean up dead flesh, manure, and dead plants. Bacteria are the ultimate decomposers, but they cannot work on rough plant litter. Once the litter has passed through the guts of maggots, springtails, termites, and others, bacteria and fungi can go to work on it, turning it back into soil.

The action of termites simply shows why we think them bad. Termites do nothing except make a living off dead wood, as they have always done. We are the ones that have turned things topsy-turvy by valuing dead wood in our buildings. Waldbauer's book is hugely valuable in taking this larger view of fascinating fellow creatures. It gives many instances of clever experiments that entomologists have done, bothering the bugs until they give up their secrets. It provides countless examples of evolutionary design that is intricate, even witty. For instance, the botfly has to get its eggs deposited onto a mammal for them to develop, but the female never has to worry about getting swatted; she catches a fly or mosquito, glues her eggs to it, and releases it. The botfly larvae know to pop out when they are delivered to a warm-blooded animal. The book's many examples of this kind can only increase one's admiration for the clever humans who have figured out such things, and for the intricate ways insects have adapted themselves to become a cornerstone of all our planet's life.