Endless Forms

The Secret World of Wasps

De: Seirian Sumner

Narrado por: Seirian Sumner

“A book that draws us in to the strange beauty of what we so often run away from.” — Robin Ince, author of The Importance of Being Interested

In this eye-opening and entertaining work of popular science in the spirit of The Mosquito, Entangled Life, and The Book of Eels, a leading behavioural ecologist transforms our understanding of wasps, exploring these much-maligned insects’ secret world, their incredible diversity and complex social lives, and revealing how they hold our fragile ecosystem in balance.

Everyone worries about the collapse of bee populations. But what about wasps? Deemed the gangsters of the insect world, wasps are winged assassins with formidable stings. Conduits of Biblical punishment, provokers of fear and loathing, inspiration for horror movies: wasps are perhaps the most maligned insect on our planet.

But do wasps deserve this reputation?

Endless Forms opens our eyes to the highly complex and diverse world of wasps. Wasps are 100 million years older than bees; there are ten times more wasp species than there are bees. There are wasps that spend their entire lives sealed inside a fig; wasps that turn cockroaches into living zombies; wasps that live inside other wasps. There are wasps that build citadels that put our own societies to shame, marked by division of labor, rebellions and policing, monarchies, leadership contests, undertakers, police, negotiators, and social parasites. Wasps are nature’s most misunderstood insect: as predators and pollinators, they keep the planet’s ecological balance in check. Wasps are nature’s pest controllers; a world without wasps would be just as ecologically devastating as losing the bees, or beetles, or butterflies.

Wasps are diverse and beautiful by every measure, and they are invaluable to planetary health, Professor Sumner reminds us; we’d do well to appreciate them as much as their cuter cousins, the bees.

Pretty good

I liked it, the background story got a little cheesy at times but the overall information is very interesting!

all the services wasps provide,

it is a beautiful book, I love it. I wish it was in Spanish too

Yay wasps

I appreciated learning about wasps and am grateful there's a book on them available. I didn't like the author's writing style; too cheesy.

Waspy whoa Man

I think this book would have been better without the author reading it. I loved the wasp info and have a new respect for them.

Five Minutes In and I knew This Was Going to Rock Me

Endless Forms hit me in a place I did not expect. I have spent my whole life afraid of wasps, swatting at them, cussing them, and writing them off as nothing but mean little stingers. Listening to Seirian Sumner walk through their world, layer by layer, felt like sitting with someone who is completely in love with what she studies, and letting that love soften my own fear and disgust.

You can hear her devotion in every line. She is calm, clear, funny, and deeply informed, and she never talks down to you. By the end, I realized I was actually rooting for the wasp, seeing its place in the story of life instead of just seeing a threat. This book did not just teach me more facts than I expected, some of which blew my mind and had me hungry for, but it also changed how I feel. I am honestly grateful and honored I got to learn from her.