Metamorphosis: How Insects Are Changing Our World (2024)

Erica

McAlister

Adrian

Washbourne

Erica McAlister is a master raconteur, and she draws you in immediately to a set of ten chapters, each a fascinatingly eclectic exploration of how insects did it first, how we humans found out, and the possible biomimetic or bioinspired applications of whatever wonderful thing it was that insects did first.

An adaption and expansion of the BBC Radio 4 series Metamorphosis, of which Adrian Washbourne was the producer, this little (5½ × 8 in) book teaches everyone with each episode. The audience is truly anyone interested in insects, and maybe those just generally curious, since they will be roped in too. I revisited research I thought I knew all about (but didn’t) and learned about new tidbits or whole platters of entomology about which I knew little to nothing.

The distribution among insect orders is better here than in McAlister’s previous two books, which were all about flies, as one would expect from the senior curator for Diptera at the Natural History Museum in London. Only two and a half of the ten chapters are about flies! As one would also expect from her curation duties, she is exacting in both explanation and use of nomenclature, always listing animal and plant binomials with their authorship. I like that.

McAlister has a way with words, and a way of blending human history with natural history that makes the pages turn with pleasure. For fleas, we have carefully explained scientific insights on resilin and gravitational (g-) forces, combined seamlessly with tales of the eminent siphonapterist Dame Miriam Rothschild, as well as her relatives’ quest for specimens and later, nature preserves. And did you know that while humans can’t survive over 16g, there is a tardigrade that survives 16,000g? This compares to fleas that generate 140g just by jumping! This is a real challenge for the bio-inspired robots that aim to imitate them.

The book gives refreshing emphasis to entomologists who were underrated, excluded, or ignored through history yet made lasting and amazing contributions to the science, some just recently coming to light. For me, most memorable among these is Charles Henry Turner, a pioneering ethologist whose insights would be cutting-edge contributions today. As an African-American born just after the Civil War, his scientific path was difficult and fraught with barriers. He obtained his B.S. at the University of Cincinnati, the first Black man to do so, and his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Chicago in 1907, but he could not gain a professorship because of pervasive prejudice. He taught instead at a high school in St. Louis where, during his summers, he undertook amazing behavioral studies of bees and other invertebrates. “Turner refused to see bees and other insects as simple reflex machines driven by spontaneous reactions to environmental stimuli. For him, behind every insect’s decisions lay learning, memory and individual variability.” That’s thinking more than a century ahead of its time, and only part of this underappreciated story.

It’s great that the book has a decent index, and a “Further Reading” list, even if the font is rather wee, as the Brits would say. Ideally, there would also be page-by-page annotation of all the juicy tidbits that McAlister serves up.

I love how her histories, human and natural, cut across cultures and disciplines to deliver you to the present day—but you’ll have to read about all the rest yourself. Did you know a kunga cake is made of midges? Or that bright iridescence is some of the best camouflage? Or how many liters of water you would have to drink to imbibe the equivalent of what a Namib desert tenebrionid harvests from fog in a single night? Even if you have some inkling, you will learn more about it here, and you’ll wish she had written more chapters when you’re done with this charming little volume.

Donald C. Weberis a research entomologist with USDA ARS in Beltsville, Maryland. His research focuses on biological and behavioral control methods for vegetable pests, especially beetles and true bugs. He is the new book reviews editor for American Entomologist.

© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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