Marlene Zuk, Sex on Six Legs, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011
I cannot say, reading Marlene Zuk's treatise on insects, Sex on Six Legs, which is more fascinating: the incredible and horrible things insects do or the multitudinous and minute things scientists do in studying them. You will not believe the kinds of behaviors that occur among insects, nor will you believe the lengths to which scientists go in examining them. Zuk explores more studies than even the list of chapter titles would suggest, so I will offer only one example to titillate your interest.
A blister beetle that lives only in the sand dunes of the southwestern United States lays its eggs on purple-flowered plant called a milk vetch. But the larvae can't survive on the plant and instead must develop as parasites in the nests of a solitary bee that also lives in the desert. How do the flightless beetle larvae get from the plant to the bee's nest? Immediately after they hatch, the larvae make their way up to the tip of the plant stem, where they cluster together in a clump of anywhere from 120 to over 2,000 individuals. Viewed collectively, the clump resembles a female of the bee species. They emit a chemical that mimics the sex pheromone of the bee, which attracts a male bee. When the bee lands on the clump and attempts to mate, some of the larvae leap onto its back and are thus carried to his next, more successful encounter. In this attachment the larvae transfer to the female bee and so are carried to the bee's nest. Once there they hop off and feed on the pollen and nectar the bee brings back for her own offspring. Really! (p.172, slightly adapted)
Zuk has absolute faith in evolution as a complete description of how life developed, yet it is clear between the lines that there are more questions that follow from the study of insects than answers. Similar to pursuits in astronomy, the atom, and other scientific fields, the more we learn the more complex things are seen to be and the more questions arise as to just how life and the universe can be what they are. Zuk quotes Ryan Gregory: “The strikingly low number of genes required to construct even the most complex organism represents one of the most surprising findings to emerge from the analysis of complete genome sequences.” (p56) Scientists could do with a bit more humility, but then, so could theologians.
Sex on Six Legs is the scientist's version of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Anne Dillard. If you liked Pilgrim, you will probably enjoy this one (which is why I checked it out).
