TRICKSTERS AND TRAPPERS: How Some Animals Capture Their Food

However exotic the species -- silk-thread throwing spider of Australia, Borneo mantis, ant lion, caddisworm, archerfish, doka -- and however intriguing their manipulative means of capturing prey, the real trickster here is the author -- i.e., the poet -- who presents her 27 expositions in free verse. ""The blister beetle worm/ Prefers to hide among the petals/ Of a flower./ When a bee alights,/ The worm crawls onto it/ And clings to its fuzzy body. . . ."" Nothing could be less direct or encouraging, more bizarre or ungainly.