All animals must eat. But who eats who, and why, or why not? Because
insects outnumber and collectively outweigh all other animals
combined, they comprise the largest amount of animal food available
for potential consumption. How do they avoid being eaten? From
masterful disguises to physical and chemical lures and traps,
predatory insects have devised ingenious and bizarre methods of
finding food. Equally ingenious are the means of hiding, mimicry,
escape, and defense waged by prospective prey in order to stay alive.
This absorbing book demonstrates that the relationship between the
eaten and the eater is a central-perhaps the central-aspect of what
goes on in the community of organisms. By explaining the many ways in
which insects avoid becoming a meal for a predator, and the ways in
which predators evade their defensive strategies, Gilbert Waldbauer
conveys an essential understanding of the unrelenting coevolutionary
forces at work in the world around us.