Call of Nature (eBook)

lt;p>Richard Jones is a nationally acclaimed entomologist, a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, fellow of the Linnean Society, and past president of the British Entomological Society. He has been fascinated by wildlife since a childhood exploring the South Downs and Sussex Weald after plants and insects.

Richard writes about insects, nature and the environment for BBC Wildlife, the Guardian, Gardener’s World and Countryfile and has regular radio appearances on such programmes as Home Planet and Woman’s Hour.

Richard is author of several books on science and wildlife including Nano Nature (HarperCollins, 2008), Beekeeper’s Bible (to which he is a major contributor, HarperCollins 2010). Extreme Insects (HarperCollins) was published in September 2010 and received widespread recognition in the press. The paperback was issued in September 2011. The Little Book of Nits (Bloomsbury) was published in May 2012. Mosquito, in the acclaimed Animal series (Reaktion Books) appeared in August 2012. House guests, house pests - a natural history of animals in the home was published in February 2015 (Bloomsbury). It was released in paperback in February 2016. He is currently working on the Beetles volume of HarperCollins' famous New Naturalist series.

1 Introduction – what is dung?

2 Cleanliness is next to fastidiousness – the human obsession with sewage

3 Waste not – dung as a human resource

4 It’s worth fighting over – dung as a valuable ecological resource

5 Dung communities – interactions and conflicts

6 The evolution of dung feeding – where did it all begin?

7 A closer look – who lives in dung?

8 Cross section of a dung pat – a slice of coprophagous life

9 The ageing process – time line of a dung pat

10 Dung problems – the end of world ordure as we know it

11 Dung types – an identification guide

12 Dung inhabitants and dung feeders – a rogues’ gallery

13 Dung is a four-letter word – a scatological dictionary

References

Index