If you like bugs and want to learn more about their natural histories and behaviors, I recommend Broadsides from the Other Orders, A Book of Bugs by Sue Hubbell. It was published in 1993, and both new and used copies are available from used booksellers on Amazon. Some used copies sell for less than $5.
Hubbell, a beekeeper, branches out to other orders of insects (6 legs and a 3-part body) and arachnids (8 legs and a 2-part body) in this book and uses the term bug to refer to them collectively. Each of the 13 chapters covers a different bug. Hubbell got to know her subjects by working alongside entomologists in the field and by observing bugs that she had captured and kept in terrariums. She approaches each bug with a wide-eyed sense of wonder and writes about them with a warm, entertaining prose.
In Chapter 4, about daddy longlegs (Order Opiliones), Hubbell admits “… I had seen daddy longlegs all my life but knew practically nothing about them.” She captured a pair for observation and built a screen-wire cage for them that she made as “homelike” as possible, with sand, water, and dead leaves. She observed her charges for several weeks and especially enjoyed watching them preen, one leg at a time. She interviewed entomologists who studied daddy longlegs and writes about their research as well as the gaps in our knowledge about these arachnids.
Chapter 13 is about camel crickets (Order Orthoptera). If you live in a house that has a basement or crawlspace, you may have seen camel crickets, also sometimes called cave crickets. These stout, 1 1/2” long insects are considered unattractive and “yucky” by even the most tolerant nature lover. Last year, a man doing some work in the crawlspace under my house emerged saying, “Ma’am, you’ve got cave crickets, you better call in an exterminator right away.” Rather than call an exterminator, I read Hubbell’s chapter on these insects. Hubbell, it turns out, had been raising camel crickets for 20 years because “no one else has” and she was trying to “figure out what they were up to.” She describes camel crickets as “… a lovely pale, buffy fawn in color, dappled with darker brown and black. The big hind legs that make them good jumpers have beefy haunches stylishly herringboned in black.” Makes you want to keep a terrarium full of these critters. She goes on to say “Camel crickets are immaculately clean, harmless animals whose dearest wish is to be left alone.” The chapter describes her observations as well as her breeding experiments to sort out the species present near her home in the Ozarks.
Other chapters are about bugs that most of us adore (butterflies, ladybugs, katydids, and dragonflies) as well as abhor (black flies, silverfish, and gypsy moths). Either way, you’re sure to learn something fascinating about them.
I am a huge dragonfly fan. Thanks for the great pic.
Happy Pages,
CricketMuse
Thanks for your comment, CricketMuse!
Hi, I am a big Sue Hubbell fan. Try “A Country Year”. Your blog is really, really good. I make a point always to read it. Thanks for great information, pictures and clear writing.
Diane Tucker
Thanks for your comment, Diane!
Edna