Endless forms : the secret world of wasps / Seirian Sumner.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Sumner, Seirian, author.

Contributor:

• Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Wasps.
• Wasps--Behavior.
• Wasps--Classification.
• Entomology.

Physical Description:

387 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2022.

Summary:

• In this eye-opening and entertaining work of popular science in the spirit of The Mosquito, Entangled Life, and The Book of Eels, a leading behavioural ecologist transforms our understanding of wasps, exploring these much-maligned insects' secret world, their incredible diversity and complex social lives, and revealing how they hold our fragile ecosystem in balance.
• Wasps get a bad rap, but there may no other earthly creature guarding so many undiscovered wonders. Wasps are the bees' evolutionary ancestors-- and are just as essential for the survival of our environment. Wasps taught us how to make paper, and their sophisticated social networks are the best model we have for earth's major evolutionary transitions. Sumner shows that in their understudied biology are clues to progressing medicine, including a possible cure for cancer. Their secrets have gone mostly untapped-- but the potential of the wasp, and the form it takes, is endless. -- Adapted from jacket.

Contents:

• Machine generated contents note: pt. One The Problem with Wasps
• pt. Two The Obsessions of Wasp Whisperers
• pt. Three How to Have a Social Life
• pt. Four Playing the Game
• pt. Five Dinner with Aristotle
• pt. Six Nature's Pest Controllers
• pt. Seven The Secret Pollinators.

Notes:

• "Originally published in Great Britain in 2022 by William Collins"--Title page verso.
• Includes bibliographical references (pages 347-365) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

• 9780063029927
• 0063029928

OCLC:

1275427675

Online:

The Rosengarten Family Fund Home Page