Why Do Moths Drink Elephants' Tears?

Author: Matt Walker
Publisher: Piatkus Books
ISBN: 9780749951535
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
The first professionally researched miscellany guide to the animal kingdom, packed with fascinating and bizarre facts_ Did you know that the male flour beetle is the only animal which can mate and impregnate a female he has never met?_ That virgin male butterflies make better lovers than more experienced ones?_ Or that rats can learn the difference between Dutch and Japanese?Why Do Moths Drink Elephants' Tears? is an entertaining and addictive collection of eclectic insights and unusual facts, detailing the wondrous diversity of animal life that surrounds us.

Moths Drink Tears!

Author: Miriam Coleman
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1477731261
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 26

Book Description
Most people think of small insects fluttering harmlessly around lights when they think of moths. However, there are some moths with a sinister secret. They use their barbed tongues to poke animals in the eyes and drink their tears. Different species like different animals’ tears, such as elephants or birds. Readers will discover all sorts of disgusting facts about moths. You will never look at a moth the same way again!

Fish That Fake Orgasms

Author: Matt Walker
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312371166
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
A collection of animal trivia focusing on the unusual or bizarre includes such examples as the sexual prowess of virgin male butterflies, the role of eyeballs in enabling frogs to swallow, and the fighting styles of deer as evidenced by their horn shape.

Adorable Animal Facts

Author: James Egan
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 132642050X
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
Cows have best friends.Goats have accents.A group of pugs is called a grumble.The manakin bird can do the moonwalk.The Chinese for seal translates in "ocean panther."Otters have a little pouch to keep their favourite rock.An octopus will never forget a face.Zebras can't sleep alone.Because of how a pig's eyes are placed, they can never see the sky.Butterflies taste everything they walk on.

Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

Author: David Quammen
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393333604
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
This work is a revised and expanded edition of Quammen's first book of nonfiction, and reprints some of his best-loved "Natural Acts" columns, which first appeared in "Outside" magazine in the early 1980s.

The Faraway Nearby

Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101622776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award A personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy, from the author of Orwell's Roses Apricots. Her mother's disintegrating memory. An invitation to Iceland. Illness. These are Rebecca Solnit's raw materials, but The Faraway Nearby goes beyond her own life, as she spirals out into the stories she heard and read—from fairy tales to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—that helped her navigate her difficult passge. Solnit takes us into the lives of others—an arctic cannibal, the young Che Guevara among the leprosy afflicted, a blues musician, an Icelandic artist and her labyrinth—to understand warmth and coldness, kindness and imagination, decay and transformation, making art and making self. This captivating, exquisitely written exploration of the forces that connect us and the way we tell our stories is a tour de force of association, a marvelous Russian doll of a book that is a fitting companion to Solnit's much-loved A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

Love Sick

Author: Frances Kuffel
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698156064
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
Frances Kuffel wasn’t a Victoria’s Secret model, but she wasn’t so bad. Why couldn’t she find her Mr. Right? As Shakespeare said, the course of true love never did run smooth, but for Kuffel, it seemed like one pothole after another… In this sharp and irreverent memoir, Frances Kuffel recalls her quest to replace her on-again, off-again lover with someone new and preferably less unstable. Fifty-three and never married, Frances opens her mind to all possibilities. She goes out with an Orthodox Jew, is almost the victim of a scammer, stays out all night with a man twenty years her junior, encounters feeding fetishes and shoe fetishes, and generally reads a lot of strange emails. Brazenly honest and insightful, Kuffel comes through the experience with a new understanding of love and realizes that what she wants is not necessarily a knight in shining armor. She’d be perfectly happy with someone who’ll spend hours buying antique teacups with her, thinks two dogs are not enough, and wants to be in her life through the good and the bad. And once she finally figures out what she’s looking for, the only challenge left is to find it…

The Lives of Moths

Author: Andrei Sourakov
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691230366
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A richly illustrated look at the natural history of moths Moths are among the most underappreciated insects on the planet, yet they make up the majority of some 180,000 known species of Lepidoptera. Filled with striking images, The Lives of Moths looks at the remarkable world of these amazing and beautiful creatures. While butterflies may get more press than moths, Andrei Sourakov and Rachel Warren Chadd reveal that the lopsided attention is unjust. Moths evolved long before butterflies, and their importance cannot be overestimated. From the tiniest leaf miners to exotic hawk moths that are two hundred to three hundred times larger, these creatures are often crucial pollinators of flowers, including many that bloom at night or in twilight. The authors show that moths and their larvae are the main food source for thousands of animal species, and interact with other insect, plant, and vertebrate communities in ecosystems around the world, from tropical forests and alpine meadows to deserts and wetlands. The authors also explore such topics as evolution, life cycles, methods of communication, and links to humans. A feast of remarkable facts and details, The Lives of Moths will appeal to insect lovers everywhere.

Fur, Fleas, and Flukes

Author: Michael Stock
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487539940
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Shedding light on the unseen world around us, Fur, Fleas, and Flukes reveals the role parasites play in shaping the lives of wild mammals. Today, even if you live in a major city and seldom get a chance to visit national parks or wildlife reserves, you encounter wild mammals. On the inside and the outside of these animals exist an amazing diversity of living things: parasites. These parasites play crucial roles in the ecology, behavior, and evolution of their wild mammal hosts. In Fur, Fleas, and Flukes, parasitologist Michael Stock tells the stories of wild mammals – from armadillos to zebras – and the fascinating unseen organisms – such as tapeworms, flukes, and roundworms – that live in and on them. Stock examines how parasites can modify mammal behavior, shape their appearance, determine where they live, and even influence how they survive. He details how parasites can transfer to our pets and, disturbingly, lead to disease and fatalities in humans. Fur, Fleas, and Flukes also takes into account the potential impact of unprecedented environmental changes on our planet, highlighting how these shifts may alter the ecological balance between mammals and their parasites – ultimately affecting human beings and our health.

Do Butterflies Bite?

Author: Hazel Davies
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813545072
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
How fast do butterflies fly? Does a butterfly have ears? Do they sleep? Does a caterpillar have a skeleton? How does a moth get out of its cocoon? What is the difference between a butterfly and a moth? And just what is a skipper? Every year, thousands of people visit butterfly conservatories to stand in quiet awe of the simple beauty displayed by these magical creatures. Hazel Davies and Carol A. Butler capture the sense of wonderment and curiosity experienced by adults and children alike in this book about butterflies and their taxonomic cousins, the moths and the skippers. Beautifully illustrated with color and black and white photographs, and drawings by renowned artist William Howe, this book is an essential resource for parents, teachers, students, or anyone who has ever been entranced by these fascinating, fluttering creatures. Covering everything from their basic biology to their complex behaviors at every stage of life to issues in butterfly conservation, Davies and Butler explore wide-ranging topics and supply a trove of intriguing facts. You'll find tips on how to attract more butterflies to your garden, how to photograph them, and even how to raise them in your own home. Arranged in a question and answer format, the book provides detailed information written in an accessible style that brings to life the science and natural history of these insects. In addition, sidebars throughout the book detail an assortment of butterfly trivia, while extensive appendices direct you to organizations, web sites, and more than 200 indoor and outdoor public exhibits, where you can learn more or connect with other lepidopterophiles (butterfly lovers).