Ninety-nine More Maggots, Mites, and Munchers

by May R. Berenbaum

What lives in a reindeer’s nose? Glad you asked. In this sequel to Ninety-nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers , National Medal of Science winner May Berenbaum offers another classic compendium of creepy-crawly cameos. Read up on our myriad arthropodan indignities and allies as Berenbaum
Why the rove beetle gives mind-altering drugs to ants
How the snail-killing fly enjoys its escargot
Why Piophila casei doesn’t care when you eat its larvae
What strange fate awaits a honey ant worker engorged with nectar
 
As lively as a fly in the buttermilk, Ninety-nine More Maggots, Mites, and Munchers is a who’s who and what’s THAT? guide to Lilliputian life-forms both familiar and obscure.
 

Genres: Science

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1993

About the author

May Roberta Berenbaum is an American entomologist whose research focuses on the chemical interactions between herbivorous insects and their host-plants, and the implications of these interactions on the organization of natural communities and the evolution of species.

Reviews

[Audrey Sauble]

Highly informative, with a wry sense of humor. The book is somewhat dry, rather like a catalog, but with a scattering of gems that keep things buzzing—including a section that describes how a female yucca moth places pollen on the pistil of a flower, to ensure a good crop for her seed-eating babies. The section concludes that this behavior makes this moth “the original pistil-packing mama.”