Endless Forms: Why We Should Love Wasps

Seirian Sumner
William Collins, £9.99

Ask someone at random what a wasp is, and they will almost certainly say that they are small black and yellow insects, and that they sting with little provocation if they visit a late summer picnic. Seirian Sumner is an enthusiastic, engaging author whose main objective with this book is to explode such a misconception.

Wasps are an incredibly diverse and ecologically important group of hymenopterans – in parts of the world they rival bees in terms of significance as pollinators, and they kill more pests than any other insects. They are also a species-rich group, with one Superfamily alone, the chalcids, containing perhaps half a million species of usually very small and beautifully metallic wasps.

Some are social insects with queens and workers, but most are more typical insects, with adults leading solitary lives, often searching out prey that will support development of their offspring. Sumner describes this diversity but also digs deeper into some of the evolutionary constraints and opportunities that have led to the repeated evolution of hymenopteran societies, as well as the success of the group as a whole and the ways that wasp societies are policed to deter individuals that are not ‘playing the game’.

The book’s friendly writing style makes for easy reading, and the text is supported by a good number of colour illustrations. Anyone reading it cannot fail to gain an appreciation of these fascinating insects, even if they still want to keep the black and yellow minority at arm’s length.  

Dr SG Compton