Sex on Six Legs

Starred review from May 23, 2011
How is it that insects, with their robotic demeanor and stripped-down biological toolbox, are able to accomplish so many of the same functions that humans do? In this smart, engaging account of the social behavior (and yes, the sex lives) of ants, crickets, bees, and others, evolutionary biologist Zuk shows us that many of the things we think of as setting humans apartâpersonality, learning, languageâaren't so extraordinary after all. With little more than a brittle exoskeleton and a few clusters of nerves, insects are able to take care of their young, tell one another about far-off places, make group decisions, and recognize distinct individuals, not just of their own species but of ours. In Zuk's breezy style, disquisitions on the mating habits of damselflies or the genetics of fruit flies are made surprisingly palatableâand they yield unexpected insights into human interactions. Zuk approaches her subject with such humor and enthusiasm for the intricacies of insect life, even bug-phobes will relish her account.

June 15, 2011

A global sampling of the clever lives and loves of our six-legged friends.

Zuk (Biology/Univ. of California, Riverside; Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites that Make Us Who We Are, 2007, etc.) begins with an impressive array of the ways bugs benefit humans: They aerate the soil, dispose of dung, pollinate the majority of the world's plants, provide bait for bigger prey and even control pests (good bugs eating the bad ones). That they represent 80 percent of all species and will no doubt outlive humans on this planet should give readers pause. How do they manage? In myriad ways, the author demonstrates. As for sex, readers may know about the cannibalism of lady mantises and how queen bees consort with drones, but Zuk also examines species where males produce giant sperm to out-compete rivals, conduct sperm wars in which a later-copulating male scoops out a previous lover's deposits, pursue both long and short-term couplings and even engage in same-sex behavior. Parenting is also diverse, and provides Zuk with some of her most colorful examples. The tiny emerald cockroach wasp, for example, can sting a cockroach to stun it but not render it immobile, enabling the mother to lead the cockroach by its antennae to the nest to serve as food. Of particular interest (and some controversy) are studies indicating the existence of personality traits such as aggression or passivity, learning ability and communication in bugs. Zuk's chapters, particularly on social insects, are rich in examples, but she invites questions on why there isn't more research on genetics and insect nervous systems to fathom what's behind all this complex behavior.

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.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011
Biologist Zuk has penned one of the most readable books about insect behavior produced in the past several years. Despite the fact that most readers will have strong feelings about insects, most of them negative, Zuk celebrates these animals which (from our standpoint) have too many legs. Insects do so many things that other animals don't, while doing all the things that other animals do, and studying them helps us to understand ways of life that many can only dream of. Zuk leads us through the intricacies of insect life, showing that insects have abilities that we've never even thought of and how these evident smarts help them survive. We learn that bees can count, that fishing spiders can be bold, that some ant species make slaves of other ants, that butterflies have two kinds of sperm, and that earwigs are devoted mothers. Quoting everyone from scientists to Milton Berle to Shakespeare, and showing how popular culture often portrays insects wrongly, Zuk has the uncanny ability to take what most of us consider just plain creepy and turn it into the fascinating and the revelatory.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)