Alien Worlds

The Secret Lives of Insects

By: Steve Nicholls

Narrated by: Alan Turton

An ambitious account of the evolution and biology of insects.

Insects are the most successful group of animals ever to have lived. They comprise a million species and perhaps 10 quintillion individuals: one in every four animals on the planet is a beetle; one in every ten is a butterfly or moth. Much of life on earth depends on the activities of these busy, teeming arthropods, from pollination to the breaking down of waste matter.

In Alien Worlds, Steve Nicholls draws on a lifetime of writing about, photographing and filming the natural world to create an ambitious account of insect evolution and biology. Each chapter of Alien Worlds centers on one or more of the traits of insect life that have allowed them to hold dominion over the earth's terrestrial and freshwater environments for so long, from their staggering reproductive ability to their complex partnership with flowering plants, and from their remarkable level of care for their young to their sophisticated social lives.

Alien Worlds explores what insects are, and why there are so many of them; the impact on insects (the only flying invertebrates) of the possession of wings; and the extraordinary sensory world of insects.

©2023 Steve Nicholls (P)2023 Head of Zeus

Fascinating, Entertaining and educational!

Loved it all - even the parts above my “level”. Thought provoking, detailed: nature is so incredibly cool!

Wonderful exploration of the world of terrestrial invertebrates

Fantastic mixture of science, natural history, and field work tableaus that results in a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to terrestrial invertebrates and the highly fascinating and successful class Insecta

A masterful depiction of an astonishing world

Nichols is not embarrassed to let his subject matter - the tremendously diverse insects - take center stage. This is a title I can listen to over and over.