Fascinating Insects: Some Aspects of Insect Life

This book on the very successful and much diversified group of organisms, the insects, deals with some interesting aspects of insect life, which are often ignored in Entomology text-books, such as ants making "slaves", insect migrations, chemical defence strategies in insects, parental care, ants-plants relationship etc. It also includes first hand experiences with insects of the great traveller-naturalist Prof. P. Jolivet, who narrates the emergence in large numbers of the seventeen year cicada in USA in May 2004 after 17 years of underground life, occurrence of insects on the great tepuys of Venezuela, marching of army ants in the tropical Africa, beetles carrying a "forest" on their back in New Guinea etc. It is hoped that the book will prove beneficial as a side reading to students of Entomology and Biology. It also has the nature of a popular reading, which provides an insight into the interesting but often untold facets of insect life to the common reader. Pierre Jolivet, D.Sc. has written many research papers and books on the beetle family Chrysomelidae. His areas of special interest include the biology of Timarcha, food plants of chrysomelids, and ants-plants relationship. He has co-edited four important books on "Chrysomelidae: Biology of Chrysomelidae" (1988), "Novel Aspects of the Biology of Chrysomelidae" (1994), "Chrysomelidae Biology", in three volumes (1996), and "New Developments in the Biology of Chrysomelidae" (2004). In recognition of Dr Jolivet's valuable contribution in the subject, the Fifth International Symposium on Chrysomelidae, held in Aug. 2000 in Brazil, was named after him. K. K. Verma, M.Sc., Ph.D. taught Zoology and Entomology for over 35 years, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in M. P. Government Colleges, India. He has worked for a long time in the field of the functional morphology and physiology of Chrysomelidae. He has to his credit a number of outstanding papers published in both Indian and international journals. He has contributed to "Novel Aspects of Biology of Chrysomelidae" (1994) (edited by P. Jolivet, M.L. Cox and E. Petitpierre), Chrysomelidae Biology, vol. 1 (1996) (edited by P. Jolivet and M.L. Cox), and "New Developments in the Biology of Chrysomelidae" (2004) (edited by P. Jolivet, J.A. Santiago-Blay, and M. Schmitt). In 2002 he coauthored a book, "Biology of Leaf Beetles", summarizing the current knowledge about leaf beetles, published by Intercept, U.K.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. - How successful are insects? - Insects at sea - Insects in frigid regions - Omnipresent ants - Insect migrations - When ants wake up! - Chemical defence in beetles and moths - Instinct and intelligence in insects - Do insects learn? - Insects and tools - Insect aggregations - Infra-red receptors - Round defence (cycloalexy) - AIDS and insects - Living clouds - Killer bees - Butterfly hunters - Interesting ways of bees and dung beetles - A memorable month, May 2004, in the USA - Digestive strategies in insects - Insects and Plants during the carboniferous - Jurassic Park or the world of cycads - The lost world or the tepuys of Venezuela and insects there - Insects and the Gondwana Hypothesis - Love match! - Damselflies, experts in ballistics - Forest on the back - Scorpion beetles and lantern beetles - Timarcha, a bloa spitting magistrate - Rotation of the male copulatory organ in insects and biased chirality - Carnivorous plants - insect enemies or friends? - Parental care in insects - Pheromones - Parasol ants - Do ants make slaves? - Do insects feel pain? - Pocket mites - Aphids and ants - Locusts - Walking in insects - Coprophagy - insect brethren of crowned pigs of Borneo - .Lamarck's ghost or the Baldwin effect - Acknowlegments