Life on a Little Known Planet [Paperback]

Howard Ensign Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1993

This is the most comprehensive and interesting book on bugs written to date. Chapters include, "The Universe as Seen from a Suburban Porch," "Year of the Locust," and "Water Lizards and Aerial Dragons." Howard Ensign Evans does a remarkable job explaining the appetites, jobs, and dangers of every possible crawling, flying and leaping insect. Even the lowly mosquito deserves respect and has a reason for being here, according to Evans. A real treat for every listener.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This classic book is natural history at its best.The world of insects is Howard Evans' "little-known planet," the realm of the cockroach and the cricket, the wasp and the bedbug. With the precision and authority of a distinguished biologist, and the wit and grace of an accomplished writer, Howard Evans muses on the uniqueness of dragonflies, the romantic impulses of butterflies, the musicianship of crickets, and the mysteries of the firefly.The insect realm never fails to enlighten, entertain, and sometimes provoke: as Evans asks, "Is the fly a more intricate machine than he appears, or are we less clever than we suppose ourselves to be?"Readers will delight in exploring Life on a Little-Known Planet.

About the Author

Howard Ensign Evans is a highly respected scholar and entomologist, having acquired years of knowledge while at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He is responsible for the extensive updating of the Entomology Department at Colorado State University. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Lyons and Burford; Revised edition (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558212493
• ISBN-13: 978-1558212497
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,186,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bug book for all people., October 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Life on a Little Known Planet (Paperback)

Howard Ensign Evans combines all the elements of a great writer (by any standard) in his 1966 book, Life on a Little-Known Planet. He has an easy and conversational style as he takes you across time and the globe investigating the secret life of insects.

My day to day contact with cockroaches, crickets, house flies, and dragonflies has become less of an irritation and more an opportunity to explore these ancient creatures. I have read and reread this book whole and in sections always finding Mr. Evans amusing, thought provoking, and readable. As a former elementary teacher, this book worked its way on to the playground and into my classroom replacing fear and disgust with knowledge and respect.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW What a great book!, August 5, 2001

By 

merrymousies (Waterford, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life on a Little Known Planet (Paperback)

I love this boook!!!!! Its easy to read, yet it goes into enough depth that you really learn about the insects. There's a whole chapter just on fireflies for example. Its the kind of book you can just pick up, read a chapter and say - wow, that's neat. (At least that's what i say) then I'll be outside and I'll be able to see whatever it is that I read about and understand so much more. So basically, the content is fantastic and the writing is so accessible that its not at all intimidating but also not patronizing. Its just very straightforward and so informative. I've learned so much. Its one of my favorite books and I wasn't even that into bugs before this. You won't go wrong with this one!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Wasp Connoisseur to Witty Insect Informant, March 7, 2007

By 

Tamara M. Jette "Volume Vixen" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life on a Little Known Planet (Paperback)

I can find no other way to begin this review than to say that this book was amazing. A good read to be had by all. And when I say all I really mean it. Biology and non-biology alike will find something to gain from t his book. The author of this book, Howard Ensign Adams, has the ability to teach the non-biologist but the talent of enticing the biology undergraduate. His ability to merge these two extremes while keeping both groups content is amazing and in a lot of ways impossible yet he has managed to do it. Each chapter is another adventure in insect know-how with tidbits of information, interesting anecdotes, and, in many chapters, a general call for more research into the specific fields discussed.

This book is organized into thirteen amazingly interesting chapters. Each chapter touches on a particular subfield of the insect world with the exception of the first and last chapters. The first chapter discusses the author's reasons for writing the book as well as his personal sales pitch on the content of the book and its intentions. The reader must be aware that this book is not recently written but was published in 1966. This is made evident in the first chapter with his discussion of the space program and its future plans to put man on the moon. It's almost comical to read his discussion of this, a feat that seems like old news to anyone nowadays but to him is only a future possibility. It can be said, however, that the age of this book is not a handicap. Aside from the obvious limited technology present in his time, the science presented does not suffer. The observations and data that Evans presents and discusses are very sound in their scientific method and in their accuracy as far as I can tell from my limited exposure to the field.

The book is fairly easy to read and most biological terminology is explained. Pictures accompany most in-depth explanations and the captions are short and usually humorous in content. The book is both accessible to those of the non-science community in terms of its skill level and in terms of its lack of necessity for prior biology knowledge. The book is also effective in its intentions of making the reader aware of the world beneath our feet and within our homes. Interesting aspects of each topic are discussed in order to keep the attention of the reader and to provide enjoyment in what might be perceived by some to be a very boring topic.

There is an obvious bias present in the author's focus on insects and the beauty he finds within their appearances and habitats. However, he does make a point to provide a disclaimer in the introducing chapter in which he makes the reader aware of his past experiences and his current work in entomology, specifically wasps. Throughout the first chapter he emphasizes that although many might not find the field as interesting and as beautiful as he, it will benefit most to learn of the things he is about to put forth. He does ask for continued research in the field and attempts to downplay the importance of the space program by referring to society's need to explain the depths of the universe while forgetting what is not known about the world within our reach.

Each subject is explored to the furthest ability of the author. Where he is not knowledgeable he brings in outside data from other scientists in the field and uses anecdotal information to highlight the interesting aspects of entomological research. He also uses these instances to give evidence to his assertions by providing sound evidence of the research in the field of interest. For example, in his bedbug chapter, humorously titled "Bedbugs, Cone-nosed Bugs, and Other Cuddly Animals", Evans discusses the research of Sir Vincent Wigglesworth on the Rhodnius prolixus, Rhodnius bug for short. Evans also provides detailed drawings of Wigglesworth experiments and discusses their results in depth. This is the rule throughout his book when discussing anything scientific.

I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone that can handle a bit of biological vocabulary and enjoys a good comedy. Howard Evans' style is witty yet informative. He puts forth the facts while adding incentive to read them. His prior work on wasps sneaks through every now and then and often he alludes to past selections or future topics that he has yet to delight you with. Overall his organization is clear and eloquent with each topic building on knowledge from the last. It is also noted on the cover that the author is also the writer of another entomological book called "Wasp Farm". I can say for myself that I have already made plans to stop by the library at some point this week to pick up this book to continue reading what I hope to be another great work by this amazing author. Even as I write this review I am making a mental list of friends and colleagues that I plan on recommending this book to, academic and non-academic alike.