Busy Builders by Roxie Munro
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
From the introduction: "Many species of insects live in...colonies, but few are builders." Each insect and arachnid featured gets two double-page spreads, one for a giant close-up painting of the individual and then a full spread to illustrate what it builds. Some of the paintings were much better than others. The cross-section format of the ant hill was engaging to look at, but the termite hill was lacking in detail or scale to see what actually happens inside. I was surprised by some of the ones I was not familiar with, so the selection was wide enough to be engaging.
With a book like this, I again am wondering 'so what'? There must be interesting studies that are working on the psychology or evolutionary biology of these kinds of builders. If they're so rare, why do they do it? Could a look at a cross section help readers think about these kinds of questions as well as presenting a series of sample animals that build?
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