Unlike the others, The Natural History of Spiders and The
Natural History of Insects by Ken and Rod Preston-Mafham (both Crowood,
ÂŁ16.99, ISBN1852239662 and 1852239646) are not directly concerned with
species identification nor limited to the British Isles. Though both eschew the
scholarly style, they are well-researched and reliable. The emphasis is on
behaviour. The Preston-Mafhams’ strength lies in their excellent photographs of
insects and spiders in action.

The next two in the pile are avowedly popular guides to insect species in the
British Isles and neighbouring regions of northwest Europe. Both are built
around colour photographs, and they should give some more traditional field
guides a run for their money. The Collins Gem: Insects photo guide by
Michael Chinery (HarperCollins, ÂŁ3.99, ISBN 0 00 470939 X) justifies its
publisher’s claim to be the “only truly pocket-sized photographic guide to
insects” if “for British fauna” is added.

The larger-format Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern
Europe by Bob Gibbons (Crowood, ÂŁ9.99, ISBN 1 85223 937 9) gives a
fuller coverage, along with good illustrations of galls, nests and so on among
its 700 or so colour photographs. At least token mention is made of all major
insect groups, and the guide’s coverage of species of butterflies, dragonflies
and damselflies and of Orthoptera (grasshoppers and their allies) is effectively
complete. But compared with the Preston-Mafham books and the Gem guide, a little
less care has been taken in checking identities.

Four slimmer volumes of about 70 pages each represent the latest in the
highly rated “Naturalists’ Handbooks” series (Richmond, each £8.95). These
set out to do a different job from the standard identification manual, and they
have succeeded admirably. Each volume provides a clear and expert introduction
to what is known about the natural history of groups of animals and plants, with
the means to identify them with user-friendly keys and good illustrations. Most
importantly, the series explicitly aims at encouraging original research by
pointing out gaps in existing knowledge, and discussing techniques and
approaches that the nonprofessional can easily adopt. The keys in these
handbooks attract many other users, too, including professional ecologists.

Doubling partly as an introduction to all macroinvertebrates found in soil,
on the soil surface or in litter, Animals under Logs and Stones by
Philip Wheater and Helen Read is the broadest in coverage. A difficult book to
write, but expertly done. It could be a bestseller.

Blowflies,by Zakaria Erzinclioglu, deals with just 32 species of
British Calliphoridae, and emphasises the dozen or so of these flies that, as
maggots, are the main exploiters of dead flesh. It is more of a comprehensive
introduction to the biology of this major group of carrion insects, with a fair
injection of forensic entomology—the author’s speciality.

Ants by Gary Skinner and Geoffrey Allen, and Thrips by William
Kirk, provide fine introductions to two contrasting insect groups, the first
with 40 British species and the second with 160. The volume on ants contains
more study techniques, that on thrips naturally has more extensive keys,
enabling well over half of the British species of this oft overlooked but
fascinating group of small insects to be identified accurately.

But the authors of Ants may have missed a trick. Although once of
very localised occurrence, the tree ant Lasius brunneus is by no means
restricted these days, as they suggest, to the counties around London. It has
certainly reached as far afield as South Wales where I found it in 1994. And the
introduced Hypoponera punctatissima is becoming more widely established
in outdoor situations than they allow: for example, in the rubbish heaps in the
garden of the Natural History Museum that I can see outside my window as I
write.

William Agosta recounts his story through a series of tales and short essays, grouping the chemicals into categories: agents of chemical warfare, chemicals that play a significant role in “lifestyles”, and those that convey messages. As he notes, there are many overlaps. He also outlines the use of plants for medicine and drugs.

On the whole, Agosta does a good job of showing us the great array of chemicals produced by organisms, the way these chemicals are involved in a huge variety of interactions between individuals of the same or different species, and some benefits that these natural products offer to humans. While a great deal inevitably has to be left out, I was surprised at the cursory treatment of venoms, with no mention of spider venoms, a feature in the great success of these arthropods.

Of the chapters on chemical warfare, the one on plants concerns plant defences against herbivores, while those on animals and microbes deal with attack and defence. Intriguing examples include the “theft” of poisonous nematocysts by nudibranchs from the cnidarians that they eat, for their own defence. When threatened, the bombardier beetles of the book’s title rapidly synthesise a mixture of highly irritant quinones. They heat the solution in their abdominal gland chambers until it reaches the temperature of boiling water. When an enemy comes along the beetles fire the boiling solution at them from abdominal “turrets”.

Chapter 5 is devoted to drugs from plants: opium from Papaver somniferum; aspirin, which was synthesised as a replacement for salicin from willow bark; and quinine from the bark of the cinchona – the fever tree of the title. It also covers the history of the use of psychotropic drugs, from opium and cannabis to doliuqui, an Aztec hallucinogenic drink from the seeds of the snakeplant.

Agosta moves to topics such as bioluminescence, silk production and chemical signals or pheromones. Among the more remarkable anecdotes, Agosta discusses a small staphylinid beetle that lives as a termite guest. Rather than borrow its hosts’ odours, Trichopsenius frosti synathesises all 21 of the compounds carried on the cuticle of the host termite Reticulitermes flavipes.

Bombardier Beetles and Fever Trees concludes with an examination of how our use of nature’s chemicals is likely to develop. Alongside traditional methods of obtaining chemicals directly from organisms or by synthesis, a third route has opened up. Gene-transfer techniques transform bacteria and other microorganisms into factories for chemicals. This will mean that rare natural sources – like the Pacific yew, for a time the main source of the anticancer drug taxol, need not be put at risk by overuse.