A Natural History of Insects in 100 Limericks

By Richard Jones and Calvin Ure-Jones

Insects are often overlooked because they are small or ignored because they are deemed trivial, and many are dismissed as nuisance pests. But their numbers and diversity are mind-numbing, and under even a modest hand lens they are beautiful or bizarre.

Insects dominate the centre ground of all terrestrial and most aquatic ecosystems. They inform us of the conservation value of ancient woodland and chalk downland. They help monitor the purity or pollution levels of ponds, streams and rivers. And they can demonstrate the effects of climate change, acting as warning lights to alert us to the damage that humans are doing to the world. Recent insectageddon headlines are starting to make people sit up and take more notice.

What better way to promote an interest in these fascinating creatures than by poetizing them? This cornucopia of discordant nonsense, with some quite frankly dubious rhyming clashes, is offered up so that entomological outreach will at least benefit from their shock value.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pelagic Publishing
• Release date: May 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781784272517

Richard Jones

Richard Jones is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a past president of the British Entomological Society and author of several books on insects, wildlife and gardening. He also contributes articles on insects and the environment to several high-profile newspapers and magazines (including the Guardian, BBC Wildlife and Gardener's World Magazine), and appears regularly on radio and television.

Book preview

A Natural History of Insects in 100 Limericks by Richard A. Jones Calvin Ure-Jones

A NATURAL HISTORY OF

INSECTS

IN 100 LIMERICKS

The bugman who lived in East Dulwich,

Wrote limericks of such complete rubbich.

He knew he was cursed,

Turning bad rhyme to worst,

So his struggle was poetic justich.

Calvin took pen to paper,

To illustrate books for his pater.

He used, as he will,

His effort and skill,

To put all success to this caper.

A NATURAL HISTORY OF

INSECTS

IN 100 LIMERICKS

RICHARD A. JONES

CALVIN URE-JONES

Pelagic Publishing

Published by Pelagic Publishing

PO Box 874

Exeter

EX3 9BR

UK

www.pelagicpublishing.com

A Natural History of Insects in 100 Limericks

ISBN 978-1-78427-250-0 Paperback

ISBN 978-1-78427-251-7 ePub

ISBN 978-1-78427-252-4 PDF

Text © Richard A. Jones 2021

Illustrations © Calvin Ure-Jones 2021

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. Apart from short excerpts for use in research or

for reviews, no part of this document may be printed or reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, now known or hereafter

invented or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh

Contents

Preface

Wasp

Bloody-nosed beetle

Silverfish

Fly

Earwig

Shield bug

Bush-cricket

Velvet ant

Greenbottle

Small copper

Giraffe-necked weevil

Peppered moth chrysalis

Whirligig

Trilobite beetle

Honeypot ant

Cochineal

Goliath beetle

Clothes moth

St Mark’s fly

Water scorpion

Cellar beetle

Potter wasp

Lacewing

Wood ant

Seven-spot ladybird

Death’s-head hawk-moth

Hoverfly

Locust

Oil beetle

Knopper

Bullet ant

Bombardier beetle

Dung beetle

Cleg

Mayfly

Field cricket

Bumble bee

Dung fly

Click beetle

Warble

Hummingbird hawk-moth

Ground beetle

Glow-worm

Stag beetle larva

Spittlebug

Deathwatch beetle

Minotaur beetle

Tiger moth

Caddis

Deer ked

Cinnabar

Scorpionfly

Conopid fly

Angle shades

Cranefly

Mother Shipton

Robber fly

Bee fly

Puss moth caterpillar

Picture-winged fly

Rose chafer

Bee-wolf

Small tortoiseshell

Burying beetle

Head louse

Dragonfly

Orange-tip

Ruby-tail wasp

Devil’s coach-horse

Magpie moth

Purple emperor

Stonefly

Plume moth

Damselfly

Cockchafer

Comma

Snakefly

Cat flea

Speckled wood

Termite

Cicada

Bed bug

Water skater

Praying mantis

Water boatman

Cockroach

Leafcutter bee

Rainbow leaf beetle

Ichneumon

Mosquito

Goat moth caterpillar

Horntail

Antlion

Aphid

Lacebug

Wart-biter

Stick insect

Clearwing

Assassin bug

Springtail

********************************************

Appendix

Woodlouse

Centipede

Wolf Spider

Millipede

Index

Preface

Insects need all the help they can get in the world. They are overlooked because they are so small, ignored because they are deemed trivial, dismissed because they are usually seen as nuisance pests. But in reality they control the world.

Their numbers and diversity are mind-numbing. Back-of-the-envelope calculations give tabloid headline statistics beyond belief – but these are probably all underestimates. There may be 3 million different species of insect out there, mostly in the unexplored rainforests of the tropics. There may be 80 million. Even the experts cannot agree to within an order of magnitude. Their vast numbers and unimaginable variety make them the perfect organisms to study if we want to understand our Earth.

Insects dominate the centre ground of all terrestrial and most aquatic ecosystems. They can tell us the conservation value of ancient woodland and chalk downland. They can show the water purity or pollution level of ponds, streams and rivers. They can help monitor air quality. They can demonstrate the effects of climate change. They offer us a window of unrivalled clarity to look at how the world works. They are warning lights to alert us to the damage that humans are doing to the Earth, and what we can do to try and save it.

Recent insectageddon headlines are starting to make people sit up and take insects more seriously. Insects are vanishing and declining everywhere. But it’s not that the warning lights are all going on – it’s that all the warning lights are being destroyed. So what better way to promote an interest in these fascinating animals than by poetizing them?

One of my earliest poetry memories is of me, aged about nine, reading out a rhyme I had written about alley cats. Sadly (thankfully) no record of this work now exists. I am a poor poet. It’s as much as I can do to rustle up a bit of doggerel – bad doggerel at that. But I like limericks, and their forgiving frivolity suits me well.

My fave rhyme is Limerick brevity,

Five lines and a twist in th’extremity.

The words quite