HIDDEN CREATURES

All creatures small and slimy.

Toward the start of this fascinating and profound and cheerfully written book, Martins—an entomologist, evolutionary biologist, and professor at Stony Brook University—describes approaching a dead elephant in his native Kenya. A “cloying fruity stench oozes through the warming morning, the very essence of life decaying,” he muses. But he quickly adds that, instead of repelling many life forms, “others have found their way here before me.” There are “the marks of a lone leopard.” There is “the stomping of vultures.” And there are the battalions of parasites that drink from the dead elephant’s eyes, its blood, and its sweat with such vigor, and in such endless numbers, the corpse resembles less a pachyderm than a “boiling cauldron of maggot stew.” Later, the author describes a “suicidal” praying mantis that tries to drown itself in front of him. This occurs because the mantis’ brain has been co-opted by a horsehair worm that shares thousands of genes with it thanks to millions of years of co-evolution. Once it infiltrated the unfortunate insect’s body, the worm grew to five times the insect’s size, then directed it into dangerous waters the worm needed for mating and birthing. The worm killed its own host to live—and create more life. “Delicate and diabolical,” concludes the author. Life would not exist if not for the parasites that prey on it, and recycle it, is this book’s mantra. Throughout it all, Martins is an enthusiastic guide. At one point, he writes of essential oils “kicked up from herbs in the grasses—familiar, tangy, and delightful. Ah, the scent of joy and wonder distilled!” He journeys throughout East Africa and the Amazon rainforest to learn about leeches, lice, ticks, fleas, and tapeworms. Much of their world is still a mystery, and readers will share the author’s amazement.

A gorgeous (if squirm-inducing) book on the awe-inspiring ways that “well and truly life begets death and death begets life.”