The Curious World of Bugs: The Bugman's Guide to the Mysterious and Remarkable Lives of Things That Crawl [Hardcover]

Daniel Marlos (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 5, 2010

If you've ever wondered what that leggy, buzzing creature was in your bathroom (or backyard, bed, or pantry), perhaps you've come across WhatsThatBug.com, where people around the world go to ask "What's that bug?" From mating African beetles to the tiniest of bedbugs, Daniel Marlos (The Bugman) has identified them all.

The Curious World of Bugs is a miscellany of illuminating facts, curiosities, helpful hints, and remarkable science about the bugs that share our world-a compendium that celebrates bugs for what they truly are: strange, mysterious, cute, beautiful, and occasionally disturbing.

Gorgeously illustrated with vintage drawings, The Curious World of Bugs offers a glimpse into the magical world of bugs that bite, infest, fascinate, repulse, and inform us all.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Daniel Marlos (aka The Bugman) created "What's That Bug?" in 1998 as a print column in American Homebody. The column spun off into a unique website in 2000 that garners more attention each year. Accolades include Yahoo! Pick of the Week, USA Today Hot Site and coverage in Real Simple and Sunset magazines.

Marlos is a visual artist, known primarily for making photographs and experimental films. The Curious World of Bugs is his first book.

Find out more about the bugs in your life at WhatsThatBug.com. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (October 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399536132
• ISBN-13: 978-0399536137
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"What's That Bug?" began in 1998 when my longtime collaborator Lisa Anne Auerbach asked me to write a column for a fledgling photocopied zine entitled "American Homebody" and I proposed insect identification as the subject matter. I justified the decision by stating matter-of-factly that "Everybody wants to know what's that bug?" and that mantra has proven true through the years. I nostalgically dredged up an early childhood interest in insects as my source of inspiration and I assumed the persona of the Bugman.

When the column went online a few years later, I proceeded to respond to the web browsing readership's letters and photographs, attempting to identify the curiosities encountered in the home, lurking on the tomato plants or spotted while on holiday in Costa Rica.

In 2002 "What's That Bug?" became a unique website and through the years, I have tried to promote an appreciation of the natural world around us, especially a tolerance of insects and their relatives. A network of faithful readers began to form, and soon those readers began to offer suggestions for unidentified and mystery specimens with links to other websites containing evidence of identification verification. The readership's fascination with the mating habits of insects, the intricacies of the food chain and the appalling number of images depicting unnecessary carnage all resulted in a further subcategorization of letters within the archive, each producing a tagged component of the website.

The fragility of our planet and the interconnectivity of all life forms continue to be driving forces behind the ecology minded tone promoted at What's That Bug?

Daniel Marlos, AKA The Bugman

April 14, 2010

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A charming book, packed with information December 2, 2010

By Rose Tellin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

"The Curious World of Bugs" is a very unusual book. Full of charm and very attractively put together, it is 210 pages of lively and detailed information about crawling, hopping and flying insects and other buggy creatures. The book is a complementary side-dish to the popular website "What's that Bug" at whatsthatbug.com, which has been online since the year 2000.

This book's small size belies the great wealth of information inside it. This is not an identification guide but an introduction to the world of bugs, in all of their fascinating strangeness. The scope of the book is worldwide. The illustrations are antique, and this, together with the engaging writing style and decorative layout, end up persuading the reader that the Bugman Daniel Marlos must in fact be a 19th century naturalist reincarnated in the body of a Los Angeles artist.

This is a book that adults can very much enjoy, but it is also a book that an adult can read to an intelligent child who is fascinated with bugs, as so many children are. As the Bugman makes clear, bugs are not scary and repugnant; instead they are worthy of our respect and admiration. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and would highly recommend it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book October 18, 2010

By Vince

Format:Hardcover

As a naturalist I regularly present educational programs about insects. The abundance and diversity of insects make them a great subject for nature study. Unlike larger animals that flee or become wary, insects often continue their interesting behaviors (hunting, eating, mating, laying eggs, etc) while you watch them. So you get to witness dramas that you don't often see in the rest of the animal world. The Curious World of Bugs explains those dramas better than any insect book I've seen. With nearly 90,000 kinds of insects in North America, it would be easy for a book to overwhelm someone with too much info about bugs, but this book covers the bugs that people are mostly likely to encounter and that are most likely to fascinate or frighten.

I will be enthusiastically recommending this book to participants in my insect programs.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for bug lovers November 26, 2010

By Zee Braman

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I ordered this book as soon as I saw it was available, and since I am a big fan of the What's That Bug website, I was not disappointed. It is a great read, lively and entertaining, and very informative for someone with an interest in invertebrates. It is written in easy-to-understand language, unlike some other books that are not really intended to be read by the layman, and it is easy to see the author has a genuine interest in his subject matter. While it contains no actual photographs of insects and spiders, it has plenty of line drawings that are very well done, making it easy to identify, at least at a glance, whatever bug you are looking for. The author's words move you right along in an easy going manner, and I think this is a great book for someone with an interest in 'bugs'. There are enough scientific terms and descriptions in the book to help you identify insects and such, but more importantly, it is just a darn fun read! Using this book in combination with the What's That Bug website will have you on your way to being the smartest guy in the room, at least as far as the lives and habits of all the mysterious and remarkable things that crawl. It is a definite valuable addition to my invertebrate library.