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doi:10.1016/j.ba
Basic and Applied Ecology 9 (2008) 91 www.elsevier.de/baae
BOOK REVIEW
Insect Evolutionary Ecology, M.D.E. Fellowes, G.J.
Holloway, J. Rolff (Eds.). CABI Publishing, Wallingford,
Cambridge (2005). 539pp., h150, ISBN: 0-85199-812-7
Evolutionary ecology aims at understanding theecology of organisms from an evolutionary perspective,and is thus concerned with how organisms adapt to theirenvironment. This perspective is powerful, simplybecause it provides a coherent framework for hypothesistesting. Hence not surprisingly, evolutionary ecology is aflourishing and rapidly growing science. Insects repre-sent excellent model organisms for understandingevolutionary ecology and have provided some of themost important insights into the field. This is mainlybecause insects have some tremendous advantages ascompared to other organisms, including their rapidreproduction and their amenability to field and labora-tory experiments.
This book contains a series of 18 case studies inevolutionary ecology using insects as model organisms.It has been developed from the Royal EntomologicalSociety’s 22nd International Symposium, held in Read-ing, UK in 2003. Thus, this volume is a compilation ofselected topics, contributed by 42 experts from differentfields of evolutionary ecology. As expected for such amulti-author book, the chapters vary substantially withregard to focus, style, and depth. Some chapters appearmore suitable for a general, non-specialist readershipthan others; a few involve considerable amounts ofjargon making them rather difficult to digest. Conse-quently, not all chapters will be equally relevant to eachreader, but many of them are definitively worthwhile.
The chapters are divided into three sections, reflectingthe scales that the studies focus on. The book starts withintraspecific interactions covering sexual selection,sperm competition, phenotypic plasticity, and howgenes and behaviour are linked in social insects. Thesecond section considers two-species interactions. Itstarts with mutualistic interactions, followed by severalchapters on antagonistic interactions such as onesbetween hosts and parasites, plants and herbivores,and predator and prey. The third section focuses onlarger-scale studies, either geographically or in terms of
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the number of species interacting (e.g. studies on localadaptation, speciation, hybrid zones, and responses toclimate change). From this overview, it becomes evidentthat the book addresses several ‘hot topics’ relevant to abroad readership.
Generally the presentation of the chapters is verygood, though most of them are rather sparselyillustrated by figures and tables, with a few notableexceptions. From Chapter 11 onwards, the pagenumbering in the contents does not match the one inthe book, which initially caused me some trouble whentrying to look something up in one of the later chapters.As all chapters contain a rich list of references, the bookis an invaluable literature resource.
Is this now a book worth reading? For several reasonsI think it is. This volume provides a comprehensiveoverview of case studies in evolutionary ecology,containing a wealth of up-to-date information. Thechapters are well-written, and the scientific quality isvery high throughout. Its content should be interestingfor many entomologists, ecologists and evolutionarybiologists; it is definitively a book for the libraries of allinstitutions. Personally, I will use this book for scientificas well as teaching purposes.
In addition to above and maybe most importantly,the book contains a must: Any biologist should readChapter 12 (The peppered moth: decline of a Darwinian
disciple by M. Majerus), comprising a defence of thepeppered moth as a symbol of Darwinian evolution. It isnot only an excellent example for how to testevolutionary hypotheses, but also for how easily gapsin our current understanding of evolutionary change canbe hijacked by creationists, attempting to discreditevolutionary theory. Sadly, such dull attempts proofedfruitful even within the scientific community. I wellremember being ‘accused’ for still using the pepperedmoth as an example for evolution in action a couple ofyears ago. Admittedly, I still do!
Klaus FischerGreifswald, Germany
E-mail address: [email protected]
