The Sting of the Wild
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt is on a mission. Some say it’s a brave exploration, others shake their heads in disbelief. His goal? To compare the impacts of stinging insects on humans, mainly using himself as the gauge.
In The Sting of the Wild, the colorful Dr. Schmidt takes us on a journey inside the lives of stinging insects, seeing the world through their eyes as well as his own. He explains how and why they attack and reveals the powerful punch they can deliver with a small venom gland and a "sting," the name for the apparatus that delivers the venom. We learn which insects are the worst to encounter and why some are barely worth considering.
The Sting of the Wild includes the complete Schmidt Sting Pain Index, published here for the first time. In addition to a numerical ranking of the agony of each of the eighty-three stings he’s sampled so far (from below 1 to an excruciatingly painful 4), Schmidt describes them in prose worthy of a professional wine critic: "Looks deceive. Rich and full-bodied in appearance, but flavorless" and "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel."
Schmidt explains that, for some insects, stinging is used for hunting: small wasps, for example, can paralyze huge caterpillars and then lay their eggs inside so that their larvae can feast within. Others are used to kill competing insects, even members of their own species. Humans usually experience stings as defensive maneuvers used by insects to protect their nest mates.
With colorful descriptions of each venom’s sensation and a story that leaves you tingling with awe, The Sting of the Wild’s one-of-a-kind style will fire your imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Whether he's kicking over anthills or chewing on velvet mites, Schmidt (Insect Defenses), an entomologist at the University of Arizona, evinces a childlike mix of gleeful fascination and terror-induced bravery as he subjects himself to stinging insects in the name of science. After some general discussion about the differences between chemicals that cause pain and those that cause physical damage, Schmidt covers key species of ants, wasps, and bees with such colorful names as "tarantula hawk" and "cow killer." He describes their evolution, life cycles, social habits, offenses and defenses, predator-prey relationships, and most importantly their often antagonistic relationships with humans. Schmidt claims that "getting stung by the same species gets boring after a while," and he presents more than enough evidence for readers to want to take his word for it. The Schmidt Pain Index (for which the author was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2015) puts the stings of a variety of species on a four-point scale, with sensuous descriptions worthy of a connoisseur: the bite of Platythyrea lamellose ("a purplish ant") is "like wearing a wool jumpsuit laced with pine needles and poison ivy," while the sting of the western yellow jacket is "hot and smoky, almost irreverent." Schmidt's tales will prove infectiously engaging even to entomophobes. Color photos.