The Hidden World: How insects sustain life on earth today and will shape our lives tomorrow
George McGavin
Welbeck Publishing Group, London, 2023, 288 Pages
Hardback: £14.99 | ISBN 978-1-80279-493-9
Review by Peter Shirley
Celebrating the Misunderstood
Unlike most books on insects this one has no pictures, no identification guides, and no lists of impenetrable scientific names. Instead it offers a very readable account of how and why insects are so important to the functioning of nature in general, and our lives in particular (“The lifeblood of global ecosystems.”). It is written in an easy, conversational, style and provides an insight into the often bizarre complexities of insect anatomies and lifestyles. For example, we learn that some dung beetles orientate themselves using the moon and perhaps the stars. Throughout, McGavin’s self-confessed passion for insects shines through.
The eight chapters include details of the group as a whole (insects comprise half of all known, and three-quarters of all, animal species) insect ecology, mating processes and rituals, parasitic lifestyles, their roles in decomposition and recycling, and “what have insects ever done for us?” One answer, in another chapter, is forensic entomology, and McGavin outlines what is believed to be the first known case of this in 13th Century China.
Although very pro-insect McGavin does not shy away from the problematic side of our relationship with insects: they may be essential to our food supplies and natural recycling processes, but 400,000 people a year die from malaria, just one of several insect-borne diseases, bubonic plague being another prime example. Such pathogens have had, and continue to have, a profound effect on millions of people’s lives.
Some of the content is not for the squeamish. For instance “The Afterlife” chapter, on insect’s roles in disposing of carcases, may best be described as grisly. Likewise a section titled “Bee vomit and other useful things” might make you think twice about eating honey. Even so, because of their role as pollinators, McGavin suggests that bees are the world’s most important group of insects.
There is much about the fact that insects have been around for a lot longer than people, and will still be around long after the human race becomes extinct. Talking of which, the final chapter is called “Repairing a World of Wounds”. It covers the usual mantra of loss, destruction, climate change, and impending doom, and the resulting apparent world-wide decline in insect numbers. In relation to this he describes the UK as “A world leader in how not to look after the natural world”.
A distinguishing feature is that the text is interspersed with accounts of McGavin’s personal experiences with insects in various parts of the world, and interviews with scientists, broadcasters and others. These include David Attenborough, Helen Roy, Erica McAlister and Alison Steadman. Erica McAlister (aka fly girl) is also of course a passionate advocate for insects. She recounts that having had a conversation with a fellow train passenger, the person concerned asked “But what is the point of flies?”. Erica could do worse than recommend The Hidden World to all who ask similar questions.
As a lifelong entomologist myself, having read this book I now know a lot more (admittedly obscure things) about insects than I did before. For instance early loudspeakers were modelled on the acoustic horns of crickets, and if the progeny of one pair of fruit flies survived for a year there would be 100 duodecillions of them – that’s 10 to the power of 41!
There are a few editing glitches relating to repeated subjects, but nothing to seriously detract from an entertaining and erudite read. A short list of “Further Reading” includes the last book I reviewed for ECOS, Dave Goulson’s Silent Earth. Perhaps the main message is not so much that we should love insects as appreciate and learn from them.
I will leave the last word to writer and broadcaster, and one-time BANC stalwart, Paul Evans. In a recent episode of Radio 4’s Costing the Earth he said that nature writing for him is “To bear witness, to celebrate the misunderstood and the overlooked, to stand up for nature.” This book is a perfect example of those sentiments.