The Surprising Lives of Bark Beetles: Mighty Foresters of the Insect World

Bark beetles deserve their day in the sun despite having a bad reputation, argue entomologist Hulcr and editor Abrahams (This Is Improbable Too) in this spirited tour. Writing that the bugs are “among the strangest [and] funniest” insects, the authors cover how the beetles communicate via smell (they’re “a poster child for research on insect chemical communication”), establish highly organized colonies, and mate (“since almost everyone is a reproductive female, they multiply superfast”). Other sections detail the intricate “art” that bark beetles create by “inscrib[ing] their life stories onto dead wood” as they chew through it, and their fungi-based diets. The authors also endeavor to reframe the beetles’ biggest reputation problem: that they damage forests. In the 1960s, for example, southern pine beetles killed “over a billion pine trees in a single year.” But it’s not all their fault, the authors write—humans are responsible for creating monocultural forests, which are a “junk food buffet” for the bugs. While the writing isn’t always the most elegant (“People often call them ugly names... But people don’t know what they are talking about”), the authors nonetheless do a stellar job of recasting their maligned subjects as being more worthy of study than scorn. Budding entomologists will find lots to appreciate. Photos. (Sept.)