Pam Phillips reviewed Endless Forms by Seirian Sumner
Why we should care about wasps, too
4 stars
This interesting book puts wasps back at the center of hymenopterans. Wasps are their very cool selves. Bees are vegan wasps. Ants are wingless wasps. Sawflies are thick-waisted wasps. Everything that bees, ants, and sawflies do -- from pollination and predation, to living in complex societies -- are behaviors that wasps did first.
Much of the basics are conveyed in an imaginary conversation with Aristotle, giving him an update on what science has learned about wasps since his observations.
The wasps that generate the most fear are the social wasps, such as yellowjackets. But these same social wasps may be the best pest control, as they eat just about every insect they can catch. The author suggests that our fear may be holding back research that could quantity this benefit and uncover methods to deploy social wasps with little risk of stings to non-insects.
