"Meet Jean-Henri Fabre, one of the most important naturalists of all time, whose own life was as unusual as the lives of the creatures he studied"--Front jacket flap.
Mrs. Stawell's retelling of Fabre's classic 10 volume series "Souvenirs Entmologieques." A condensed version, this retelling includes such notorious insects as the beetle, the cicada, the paying mantis, the mason-wasp, and many more. A great introduction to the study of insects for young children. ?First published in 1921, this edition is derived from the original book published with 12 color illustrations by Jessie E.J. Detmold. As always, this edition is complete and unabridged.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This is a book intended for young and lively-minded childrenwhich implies, as I believe, that it might win a larger number of readers in proportion to the host available than if it were intended solely for intelligent adults. But there is no more precarious merchandise than books. What we most need and pine for in this we may, by ill chance, easily fail to come across.
Jean-Leon Gerome has become a popular artist. More and more young people are showing interest in his work and collectors worldwide are hunting down pieces of ever increasing value. This volume is a condensed presentation of his monographs together with a catalogue raisonne."
Imagine beetles ejecting defensive sprays as hot as boiling water; female moths holding their mates for ransom; caterpillars disguising themselves as flowers by fastening petals to their bodies; termites emitting a viscous glue to rally fellow soldiers--and you will have entered an insect world once beyond imagining, a world observed and described down to its tiniest astonishing detail by Thomas Eisner. The story of a lifetime of such minute explorations, For Love of Insects celebrates the small creatures that have emerged triumphant on the planet, the beneficiaries of extraordinary evolutionary inventiveness and unparalleled reproductive capacity. To understand the success of insects is to appreciate our own shortcomings, Eisner tells us, but never has a reckoning been such a pleasure. Recounting exploits and discoveries in his lab at Cornell and in the field in Uruguay, Australia, Panama, Europe, and North America, Eisner time and again demonstrates how inquiry into the survival strategies of an insect leads to clarifications beyond the expected; insects are revealed as masters of achievement, forms of life worthy of study and respect from even the most recalcitrant entomophobe. Filled with descriptions of his ingenious experiments and illustrated with photographs unmatched for their combination of scientific content and delicate beauty, Eisner's book makes readers participants in the grand adventure of discovery on a scale infinitesimally small, and infinitely surprising.