Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World - Hardcover

Zuk, Marlene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 015101373X ISBN 13: 9780151013739

Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Insects have inspired fear, fascination, and enlightenment for centuries. They are capable of incredibly complex behavior, even with brains often the size of a poppy seed. How do they accomplish feats that look like human activity— personality, language, childcare—with completely different pathways from our own? What is going on inside the mind of those ants that march like boot-camp graduates across your kitchen floor? How does the lead ant know exactly where to take her colony, to that one bread crumb that your nightly sweep missed? Can insects be taught new skills as easily as your new puppy? 

Sex on Six Legs is a startling and exciting book that provides answers to these questions and many more. With the humor of Olivia Judson’s Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, Zuk not only examines the bedroom lives of creepy crawlies but also calls into question some of our own longheld assumptions about learning, the nature of personality, and what our own large brains might be for.

Über diesen Titel

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Advance Praise for SEX ON SEX LEGS


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

Insects and entomologists should be grateful to Marlene Zuk for having written Sex on Six Legs, a delightful antidote to the notion that bugs and the people who study them are irrelevant and unappealing. All those who read this entertaining and informative book will come away with a much greater appreciation for the marvelous abilities of insects and for the researchers who have revealed just what these little-known creatures are all about. John Alcock, Regents Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University School of Life Sciences

Aus dem Klappentext

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.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 015101373X
• ISBN 13: 9780151013739
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN; https://www.hmhco.com/shop; ; 125 HIGH STREET; BOSTON; MA; 2110; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: eVatmaster Consulting GmbH; 497000000000; contact@evatmaster.com; ; Bettinastr. 30,60325; Frankfurt am Main; 60325; Deutschland