They have lived on Planet Earth from well before the first apes and humansappeared. They lead fascinating lives that involve shooting, stinging, flying, jumping, biting, and more. Some can lift 500 times their body weight. Someothers navigate their way using the stars or even the Milky Way. Some aredeadly carriers of disease. And some pollinate more than one-third of ourfood sources. Together, they are essential for life on Earth to continue in aneven balance. They are: ants, beetles, scorpions, mantids, butterflies, bees, spiders, cockroaches and yes, even mosquitoes and flies!No one can describe the natural world as delightfully and humorously asRanjit Lal, and in The Harmony of Bees he brings his decades of experiencewatching and closely interacting with the world of creepy crawlies to writingabout more than twenty kinds of them. Termites have central air conditioningin their nests, he tells us. A grasshopper can jump ten times its own height(which is like us jumping the length of a football field in one leap). The tinyfig wasp is key to the survival of the mighty banyan tree. Not everyone hatescockroaches-a zoo in Japan organized a cockroach exhibition and 'cockroachpetting sessions'! Along with these bizarre and wonderful facts, Ranjit Lalexplains how these creatures live, mate, build their homes and look after (oreat) their young.Sometimes creepy, sometimes gruesome, always entertaining and packed withinformation, this is an immensely entertaining and unusual nature book