Title: Pollinators, Predators & Parasites
Subtitle: The ecological roles of insects in southern Africa
Authors: Clarke Scholtz; Jenny Scholtz; Hennie De Klerk
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
Cape Town, South Africa 2021
ISBN 9781775845553 / ISBN 978-1-77584-555-3
Hardcover, 22 x 29 cm, 448 pages, 1600 color photos
Few people realise the immense importance of insects to the earth's wellbeing but books such as this, Pollinators, Predators & Parasites: The ecological roles of insects in southern Africa, are a timely reminder that without them life on earth would be very different to what it is now. Disturbing recent studies have reported alarming declines of insect populations worldwide with as many as half of the world's insect species so rapidly declining that one-third may already be threatened with extinction. Without rapid intervention to slow or reverse the situation, the environmental consequences are likely to be catastrophic.
Pollinators, Predators & Parasites: The ecological roles of insects in southern Africa reveals for the first time the importance of insects to southern Africa's natural environment: that 70% of the world-famous flora is entirely dependent on insects for pollination and that dung beetles bury in excess of 500 thousand tonnes of animal dung per day are among the staggering statistics. Clarke Scholtz, Jenny Scholtz and Hennie de Klerk have taken the biological regions of southern Africa as the starting point of their narrative, outlining the major physical and biological characteristics of each region and then systematically relating the functions of each of the major ecological insect groups present; pollinators, predators, parasites, decomposers and others - and hence the title of the book.
Furthermore, virtually every important species and its activities are illustrated in hundreds of exquisite photos accompanying the text. The authors are eminently suitable to have handled the depth and breadth of the subject covered in hundreds of specific topics spread amongst thousands of scientific publications about insect biology; one a renowned professional academic entomologist, another a conservationist and the third a highly skilled photographer. They have produced a remarkable piece on the natural history of southern Africa's insect wealth that will stand as the reference on the topic for decades to come.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Insects and their ecological role
Fynbos Biome
Succulent Karoo Biome
Desert Biome
Nama-Karoo Biome
Grassland Biome
Savanna Biome
Indian Ocean Tropical Belt
Albany Thicket Biome
Forest Biome
Freshwater Habitats
Caves
Coastal Zone
Urban Environment
APPENDIX
Southern African Insect Orders
References
Glossary
Index