A New York Times Notable Book A stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with whom we share the world.   For as long as humans have existed, insects have been our constant companions. Yet we hardly know them, not even the ones we’re closest to: those that eat our food, share our beds, and live in our homes. Organizing his book alphabetically, Hugh Raffles weaves together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays, taking the reader on a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture. Insectopedia shows us how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations. “A collection of imaginative forays into what, for most readers, will be terra incognita. . . . Insectopedia qualifies as food for thought. . . . As inventive and wide ranging and full of astonishing surprises as the vast insect world itself. Raffles takes us on a delirious journey.” — The New York Times “Impossible to categorize, wildly stimulating. . . . A disconcerting, fantastical, (multi-)eye-opening journey into another existence.” — The New York Times Book Review “Vivid and fascinating. . . . This book will challenge your view of insects and make you see these wonderful creatures from a new perspective.” — New Scientist   “As Raffles shows our nearby neighbors to be at once dangerous and beautiful, common and incomprehensible, he refracts a world that is newly fascinating.” — Audubon Magazine (Editors’ Choice) “[A] big, beautiful testament to the glory of paying attention.” — The Boston Globe   “The coolest, most beautifully written book on bugs imaginable.” — San Francisco Chronicle   “Sings with scholarship, deft writing, and an authentic fascination with the six-legged creatures that have so long roamed the Earth.” — Seed Magazine   “Combines elements of science, history, travel and popular culture to form a sparkling whole, a wide-ranging and idiosyncratic survey of a world we all too often scorn or swat. . . . [Raffles] reminds us of the connections among all creatures, of the unfathomable mysteries that separate us, and of the fragility and resilience of life.” — The Providence Journal   “A revelation of the world of our fellow creatures . . . by a writer whose style is equal to his huge and strange task.” — Buffalo News (Editor’s Choice)   “Unusual and most engaging.” — The Seattle Times   “Provocative. . . . Insectopedia opens up a can of worms and it’s doubtful they can be herded back in.” — Santa Cruz Sentinel   “Lucid and often beautifully constructed prose. . . . We can’t recommend it highly enough.” — Austin Chronicle   “The most readable book ever written about insects.” — The Stranger   “Gorgeous, fascinating, and thought-provoking. . . . A stunning, sensitively written, insightful book. . . . Raffles set out to write a book about how people learn something new about themselves through relationships with insects, and he succeeded admirably.” — Bookslut Hugh Raffles teaches anthropology at The New School. He is the author of In Amazonia: A Natural History, which received the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing. His essays have appeared in Best American Essays, Granta, and Orion . Insectopedia is the recipient of a Special Award for Extending Ethnographic Understanding from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology. In 2009, he received a Whiting Writers’ Award. He lives in New York City. Visit the author's website at: www.insectopedia.org. Air 1. On August 10, 1926, a Stinson Detroiter SM-1 six-seater monoplane took off from the rudimentary airstrip at Tallulah, Louisiana. The Detroiter was the first airplane built with an electric starter motor, wheel brakes, and a heated cabin, but it was not a good climber, so the pilot leveled off quickly, circled the airstrip and surrounding landscape, held open the specially fitted sticky trap beneath the plane's wing for the designated ten minutes, and soon returned to land. As he touched down, P. A. Glick and his colleagues at the Division of Cotton Insect Investigations of the U.S. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine ran out to meet him. It was a historic flight: the first attempt to collect insects by airplane. Glick and his associates, as well as researchers at the Department of Agriculture and at regional organizations such as the New York State Museum, were trying to discover the migration secrets of gypsy moths, cotton bollworm moths, and other insects that were munching their way through the nation's natural resources. They wanted to predict infestations, to know what might happen next. How could they contain these insect enemies if they didn't know where, when, and how they traveled? 2. Before Tallulah, high-altitude entomology had barely got off the ground. Researchers sent up balloons and kit