Furtive Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures Who Live on You

The author of the weirdly hilarious Flattened Fauna --a field guide to the common animals often bulldozed on highways by cars and trucks that has sold more than 125,000 copies--here casts his inquisitive eye closer to home to examine ectoparasites, little ``friends'' who live on the outer surfaces of our bodies. These range from female mosquitos (who stop by for a quick meal) to tooth amoebas (permanent and apparently harmless residents who subsist on stray bits of organic matter in our mouths). We're even introduced to flea researchers, who ``feed their own fleas in little cages strapped to their ankles,'' a practice that minimizes the appeal of that career option. Knutson's lively descriptions of flies, chiggers, bedbugs, fungi and so on will most interest junior-high boys; adults may find the humor wears thin. Readers of all ages, however, can discover some useful tidbits (for example, if you spot a tick, use tweezers to get rid of it promptly) or at least learn humility from the fact that a maggot thinks a human looks pretty much like a dead animal or a piece of dung. Illustrations not seen by PW . Author tour. (June)