A stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with whom we share the world.

For as long as humans have existed, insects have existed, too. Wherever we’ve traveled, they’ve traveled, too. Yet we hardly know them, not even the ones we’re closest to: those that eat our food, share our beds, and live in our homes.

Organizing his book alphabetically with one entry for each letter, weaving together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays, Hugh Raffles embarks on a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture to show us how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations.

Raffles offers us a glimpse into the high-stakes world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive courtship rites of the dance fly, the intriguing possibilities of queer insect sex, the vital and vicious role locusts play in the famines of west Africa, how beetles deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our desire and disgust for insects has prompted our own aberrant behavior.

Deftly fusing the literary and the scientific, Hugh Raffles has given us an essential book of reference that is also a fascination of the highest order.

http://insectopedia.org/

全球知名的人類學傢帶你走進昆蟲微小的世界：

萬物皆與彼此同在，一扇小小的窄門，將開啓整個大韆世界

休•萊佛士，耶魯大學森林與環境研究博士學位，目前任教於紐約“社會研究新學院”（New School for Social Research）人類學係。他緻力探索人、動物和無生物之間的關係。《昆蟲誌》榮獲2009年“懷丁作傢（非小說項目）奬”、《紐約時報》2010年度好書、2010年“人文人類學學會”所頒發的特彆奬、2011年“獵戶星座圖書奬”（Orion Book Award），著有In Amazonia：A Natural History，也榮獲許多奬項。

他遊走東西方，通過遊吟詩人般的語言寫就26段各自獨立且內容豐富的篇章：人類不是世界的中心，昆蟲比人類早幾億年齣現在地球上，他們與自然的關係、與我們人類的關係，能夠反映齣這個世界真實的狀態。