Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-438) and index.

In the beginning-- -- Air -- Beauty -- Chernobyl -- Death -- Evolution -- Fever/dream -- Generosity (the happy times) -- Heads and how to use them -- The ineffable -- Jews -- Kafka -- Language -- My nightmares -- Nepal -- On January 8, 2008, Abdou Mahamane was driving through Niamey-- -- Il Parco delle Cascine on Ascension Sunday -- The quality of queerness is not strange enough -- The deepest of reveries -- Sex -- Temptation -- The unseen -- Vision -- The sound of global warming -- Ex libris, exempla -- Yearnings -- Zen and the art of Zzz's.

Deftly combining the anecdotal and the scientific, Raffles offers a stunningly original exploration of the beautiful, ancient, successful, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different insect species with which we share this world.