Biology, ecological importance and diversity of southern African insects

Description:

Insects are those small things that keep natural ecosystems functioning, thereby making life on Earth possible for all plants and animals, including humans. They provide essential ecosystem services by pollinating plants that enrich human lives by their beauty, by feeding humanity and producing the oxygen we breathe; they bury the dung of farm and wild animals that improves the soil and prevents the spread of disease; and they decompose the remains of plants, thereby returning the nutrients locked in their tissues to the soil for use by living plants in an endless cycle of life and death. There are huge numbers of them, they differ vastly among themselves, and they perform multitudes of different activities. They are the only invertebrates that fly and have a history millions of years older than plants, birds and mammals. They are the only organisms to have influenced human evolution. Some aspects of their life histories are simply amazing, and their behavioural exploits astonishing.

In this innovative book, we document the stories of southern African insects in over 800 pages, with about 3200 beautiful photographs illustrating the rich morphological diversity and biological attributes of regional insect species.

We emphasise their environmental importance as ecosystem service providers, and narrate, highlight, and illustrate many of the interesting, often remarkable, aspects of their life histories and behaviour.

A beautiful full-colour book that is an ideal gift for any nature lover. It is written in an accessible style and is aimed not only at scientists but also at ordinary readers.

The information contained in the book is of such a nature, though, that it is also a necessary addition to the bookshelf of researchers in the field of entomology and ecology. It also belongs in every school and university library.