IN A PATCH OF FIREWEED

by Bernd Heinrich ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1984

Heinrich is quintessentially the curious naturalist, happiest when stalking the odd bird, pursuing caterpillars, or observing ""rafts"" of whirligig beetles along a lakefront. In this charming and stylish volume, he combines biographical details with his economic-ecological approach to flora and fauna--embellishing the whole with precisionist pencil drawings. The German-born zoologist (now at the U. of Vermont) spent his earliest years escaping from Russian-occupied areas. His family eventually settled in the woods, gathering mushrooms and other edibles to exchange for goods in town. Father was already a collector of rare birds for museums, so young Heinrich clearly grew up in the naturalist tradition. Once in the US, he describes his early academic career and a thesis on thermoregulation in insects, the opposite of a senior scientist's. Heinrich postulated--correctly--that certain moths maintained constant temperature in flight (despite changing air temperatures) by dissipating heat generated by flight muscles. This approach--how species have evolved to use energy economically--later developed into the basis of his impressive Bumblebee Economics (1979). Now Heinrich pursues the same kind of time-motion-energy-survival questions across a broader variety of creatures. We follow his reasoning in examining whirligig behavior, in a variety of predator/prey interactions, in studies of the gaudy caterpillars that taste bad and the cryptic caterpillars that use camouflage. An underlying theme is the co-evolution of species, the sense of the inter-relatedness that has created the complex economy of the natural world. This comes to the fore especially in the title chapter, in which Heinrich describes the burned-out patch on his Maine farmland that sees a succession of growth and invaders beginning with the airborne seeds of fireweed. Finally, the bumblebees descend to drink the fireweed nectar--and to inspire Heinrich's magnum opus. To be read and savored for the writing, the drawings, and the science.

Pub Date: April 1, 1984

ISBN: 0674445511

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harvard Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION