Customer Reviews

Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs

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Hubbell is clearly pasionate about insects and their relatives, and that passion shows in this outstanding book on invertebrates. Combining personal experience with solid entomological fact, Hubbell presents to the average reader fascinating glimpses of a number of invertebrate groups, such as water striders, dragonflies, daddy longlegs, and butterflies. Hubbell shows the life stories of these groups, the role they play in nature, and the people whose lives they affect. Whether beautiful or hideous, valuable or a pest, Hubbell shows them all to be fascinating creatures. Despite that many of them are quite common, some such as black flies too common, the authors show that mysteries still exist with these creatures, how sometimes relatively basic aspects of their lives and roles in nature are mysteries.

This book is very readable and while not too technical is filled with lots of interesting and accurate facts and a wealth of personal experience on the part of the author. If you ever wanted to know more about the butterflies in your garden, the dragonflies wizzing by you over the local lake or pond, or that daddy longlegs in the attic or toolshed, this is the book for you.

As a young boy I was an avid collector of insects. No specialty - six legs were the only requirement. By about age ten I had exhausted the children's section of the central library and was given the rare honor to check out books from the adult section. Thick books with small print and detailed drawings of insects in their varied life stages. After recently reading Sue Hubbell's book, I wondered why I had wandered away from my early passion.

She describes chapter by chapter the fascinating life that we call bugs. Hubbell begins with Order Lepidoptera, the butterflies, among the more acceptable insects. Other chapters explore midges and gnats, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, bravo (killer) bees, water striders, silverfish, dragonflies and damselflies, gypsy moths, syrphid flies, and camel crickets. The detailed ink drawings scattered throughout the text are quite good.

Reading Broadsides is great fun. Hubbell is intelligent and has a great appreciation for life in its many forms. She introduces us to entomologists (a fascinating life form in themselves) and we share their enthusiasm for their particular study. We take part in a butterfly census in the Rockies, search for ladybug aggregations in the Sierra foothills, track katydids in the Midwest with sophisticated audio electronics, and closely observe an aging daddy longlegs. We discover how University of Kansas acquired a remarkable collection of water striders from a private collector. We learn that classifying insects is not a simple matter; insect evolution has been amazingly complicated, leading to unending debate regarding proper taxonomy. Obviously biodiversity is out of control.

More importantly, Hubbell helps us see the world through the eyes (sometimes many eyes) of individual insect species. I was fascinated by the complex and exhausting mating dance of silverfish. She may have even created a new genre: insect eroticism. (I look at silverfish differently today - but I still chase them away from my books.) Somehow Hubbell even manages to present biting black flies with some sympathy and understanding. Her personal observations - as when stooping over small puddles in early spring to admire the graceful performance of water striders - reveal a world that so often we ignore in our hurry and concern with bigger things.

This is a relaxing book to read. Each chapter largely stands alone and could be read in any sequence, but nonetheless the chapters combine to tell a fascinating story. I highly recommend Broadsides.

This is a neat book. Hubell takes a look at a number of insects that we're all familiar with (butterflies, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, silverfish, katydids, dragonflies, crickets, and more) and has a short essay on each, taking us past just the basics that field guides provide to understand and appreciate more about the lives and behaviors of these animal. There are also neat little fun facts like history of the names, european stories of the insects, etc. Her writing style is easy to read yet there is a balance between technical/biological facts and fun easy anecdotes/stories. Its all woven together so its not like you're reading a text book but you're stil learning a lot. There are lovely drawings sprinkled in throughout the book. Overall I really enjoyed the book and have gained some neat new knowledge that otherwise I would not have encountered.Here's a quick tidbit: for the eastern katydid - the latin name translates as "That being which has wings like a camellia leaf." Neat - makes me look a little differently at the katydid too. I loved this book - highly recommeded for any nature lover.

Hubbel is fascinated by bugs of all sorts (she keeps bees) and is a very skilled and talented writer besides. This book gave me hours of sheer enjoyment, and incidentally educated me a bit, too.

Perhaps the best way to understand the human condition is to examine what we think of as most alien--at least that is the beautyof Sue Hubbell's Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs. Throughout her close examination of the world which surrounds us--and which we too often would rather not see--Hubbell gives us a glimpse of how we see. Her introduction punctures a hole in our unexamined faith that numbers mean knowledge: to say something is about the size of a bread basket may not be as precise as giving its measurements, but it communicates more useful knowlede than, say, 8"X8"X16". All the same she doesn't hesitate to tell us that there are 300 pound of bugs for every pound of human. Each chapter adds to that questioning of technological ways of knowing and relating to the natural world. The best chapter, in my mind, is the one on Gypsy Moths. She give us a fascinating history of the arrival of the moths in the U.S. and their place in the American dream of getting rich quick. Because they were classified, in the 18th century, in the same family as the silk worm, many thought they would be able to produce a heartier and more abundant silk thread, but the category was a human invention, and the gypsy moth caterpillarss could not produce any marketable silk. But when they escaped from the controlled environment, they wrought havoc on trees. Hubbell examines the national debate about exterminating the moth altogether or limiting its destruction. Human attempts to control the moths failed, but the eco-system had its own checks to the spread of the moths (trees secreted poisons, and diseases limited population growth). When the moths became a problem again in the late twentieth century, the debate took the same shape as it had 200 years earlier. In the end, as Hubbell explains from the cafe looking out on the neighborhood where the moths first made their appearance, and where a new mall with its vast parking lot cleared of trees, it turned out that a man and his bulldozer was a far greater danger to the trees than any number of gypsy moths. Take a look at Broadsides from the Other Orders--you will never look at a moth or a daddy long leg the same way again.

This is for a friend who is into bugs, plants, animals, etc. I found this book interesting myself.

I will admit to being very, very fond of insects--which is why I bought this book in the first place.

I was charmed by Ms. Hubbell's observations, research and insights. Her prose exhibits a fine sensitivity to her subject matter...obvious also when she describes her own beekeeping and years-long experiments with crickets.

She's clever in her choice of subjects. No obscure bugs here! Everyone knows about butterflies, ladybugs, silverfish, dragonflies and the like. These are familiar garden, woods or pond friends (or enemies!--she includes black flies and gypsy moths). These are the little animals we all live with, that we may be curious about, that we've held in our hands and kept in our peanut butter jars. We seldom think about the details of their little bodies or their little lives, but Ms. Hubbell has managed to make them larger than life.

I'd recommend this delightful book to anybody who finds her eye drawn by the flight of a butterfly, or who finds reason to smile over a colorful ladybug.

Hubbell, Sue. 1994. Broadsides From the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs Random House Reprinted Edition 276 pages, ISBN # 0-679-75300-1
Broadsides From the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs is an amazing book about bugs that combines entomological facts with personal experience. Sue Hubbell is not an entomologist, but her book is quite credible because of her collaboration with notable entomologists, her experience as a writer about bugs and her fieldwork. Hubbell is an accredited Bee journalist and her works A Country Year and A Book of Bees, was recognized by The New York Times Book Review as notable books of the year.
In this book, Hubbell takes her curiosity for bugs and made it a work of art. Her inquisitive nature for bugs can be seen from chapter to chapter, as she explores and learns about various bugs and their relative orders. It is organized into thirteen chapters, in which they are written in narrative/natural history style. In each chapter one learns of a new insect in which there would be information about their life cycle, feeding behavior, mating habits, defense mechanism, phenotypic appearance and ancestry. In no particular order, the chapters are about Butterflies, Midges and Gnats, Katydids, Water Striders, Syrphid Flies, Camel Crickets, Daddy Long Legs (not strictly an insect), Dragonflies, Black Flies, Lady Beetles, Bravo Bees, Silverfish and the Gypsy Moth.
In each chapter there are interesting facts such as; "For every pound of us there are 300 pounds of bugs (p17)," "In bug design: the poorer the vision, the larger the antennae; the more powerful the vision, the shorter the antennae (p164)," "bees have hairs growing between the facets of their compound eyes, and when the hairs are removed experimentally, the bee is unable to fly accurately (p165)." You would also be exposed to entomological terms such as metamorphosis, type specimen, sexual dimorphism, aposematic coloration and Batesian and Mullerian mimicry. Furthermore, Hubbell's addition of myths, childhood experiences with bugs, creative drawing and poetry; brings humor and charm to the book. After all, it is the little bit of everything and her curiosity, which makes this book enlightening, seductive, memorable and unique.
I am a first timer at studying insects and I can pretty much say that after reading this book I am more knowledgeable about bugs; and have realized that they are beautiful mysterious creatures. I have learned a lot of things and had fun doing it, because as a visual learner Hubbell's book was alluring and picturesque because of the creative drawings. I do believe Sue Hubbell's purpose was to share her curious passion for bugs, while educating readers about the basics, which I think she did quite well. I must say reading this book definitely peaked my interest in studying bugs, because she presented the facts in an interesting and quite unforgettable fashion, plus the book is well written. I especially liked her journalistic style and felt that the information presented was thorough and precise.
Although, Hubbell's book was thorough from chapter to chapter, I do believe that she should have written about more bugs. Instead of every chapter being about an insect/bug, Hubbell could have separated her chapters by insect orders and lump the insects that belonged in that order together. For example, there was one chapter about butterflies and another one on gypsy moths; she should have put these two together, which would leave room for new bugs.
However, I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about insects and who are afraid of insects and think them as creepy; because by the time you are completed you would have second thoughts and fall in love with them.

The bugs are: butterflies, midges and gnats, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, bravo bees, water striders, silverfish, katydids, dragonflies, gypsy moths, syrphid flies, and camel crickets. The writing is lively and readable, familiar and even warm. This lady can cuddle with insects! The chapter on ladybugs and how they are captured to be sold to gardeners is particularly interesting. However the overall content of the book is a little less than I was hoping for. In particular I could have used more information on the habits of silverfish.

What I hope Hubbell focuses on in her next book is urban insects. I would especially appreciate a popular and detailed account of the lives of Argentine ants since they are the ones that plague us during the hot days of summer in southern California-or of flour beetles and book beetles and what have you. And it would be nice to read a book that identified the myriad of insects that live in and around contracts with entomologically-based companies that forbid them to disclose their knowledge of insect behavior for fear of giving away potentially valuable secrets?!

I love studying insects and Ms. Hubbell's book makes a pretty interesting addition to my collection. Her research on the lady beetles and black flies are nothing to complain about. However, recent studies have concluded that Darwin's pepper moth research is flawed, and in Ms. Hubbell's own words "For years biologists taught their students that the viceroy butterfly,...was a prime example of an edible Bastian mimic. ...and all the lecture notes and guidebooks will have to be rewitten." Maybe she needs to rewrite her own notes? Other than the lock-step Darwinianism, Ms. Hubbell make a compelling argument for the closer study of insects from the custest to the most annoying. A very good read from someone who obviously adores her subject and makes it interesting for the layman (latin names and all!).