I recommend this volume to both biologists and anyone with an aesthetic interest in nature. Naskrecki's high-quality photographs, on appropriately sized pages (10 x 10 inches), should convince even the most ardent Web surfers and app aficionados that there is still a place for books.
The text is excellently written and scientifically accurate, yet thoroughly accessible and engaging for lay readers. Many photographs were taken in natural environments, and a few under controlled lighting, but all images are of high quality, revealing details that highlight the unique beauty of each specimen. This work would make an excellent educational coffee-table book.
Piotr Naskrecki is Associate Director of the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, and Research Associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. He is the author of The Smaller Majority and Relics and photographer of A Window on Eternity by E. O. Wilson. E. O. Wilson is Faculty Emeritus Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. He is the author most recently of Half-Earth, and his books The Ants and On Human Nature were both Pulitzer Prize winners.