Ecology of Insects: Concepts and Applications

  • Martin R. Speight,
  • Mark D. Hunter &
  • Allan D. Watt
Blackwell Science: 1999. 350 pp. $55, £26.50

There is considerable disagreement over whether the total number of insect species is closer to 2 million or 10 million. What is agreed upon is that insects outnumber all other species combined. With an adaptable body plan, complex life histories and diverse feeding modes, insects have successfully radiated into every terrestrial nook and cranny. Ants forage in the desert at close to their lethal temperature of 55°C, apparently by accumulating heat-shock proteins before leaving cool tunnels. Some moths have a leisurely 13-year life cycle in the Arctic, growing only during the brief summer weeks.

Insects also engage in an extremely diverse range of ecological roles. Bark beetles consume wood by associating with cellulose-digesting fungi, while innumerable species consume more easily digestible insect tissues. Many insects pollinate plants, help decompose organic material and prey on pests.

Given this range, anyone writing a text on the ecology of insects requires considerable audacity to pull it off. Speight, Hunter and Watt provide solid coverage of current ideas. They discuss controversial issues (‘talking trees’ — the possibility that trees communicate about herbivory using volatile chemicals — overcompensation for herbivory and estimation of the number of insect species, among others) without getting bogged down by details of the debates, providing an even-handed, to-the-point treatment of issues.

It would be easy to write a text that would leave readers bewildered by masses of both ecological and entomological jargon. The authors, however, have taken great pains to explain terminology so that no great prior knowledge of entomology or ecology is required. The material is suitable for students of 18 years and up.

This is a fine volume with few defects. But the mosquito larva in Fig. 9.16 is upside-down, several of the figures are poorly labelled, and it is generally difficult to comprehend the figures from their captions alone. The specialities of the authors, on forest Lepidoptera and other economically important groups, are evident in the choices of examples, but the bias is not overwhelming.