Insect Development and
Evolution
Bruce S. Heming
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY
2003, 444 pp.
Price: $89.95
ISBN: 0-8014-3933-7
Insects are very useful for the study of animal development. In
particular, molecular genetic approaches using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, have produced some of the most significant
conceptual and factual advances in our understanding of the development
of all animals. This widely recognized fact, which was acknowledged by
honoring Drosophila researchers with the 1995 Nobel prize in
Physiology or Medicine, explains why the embryonic development of this
little fly is covered in depth in most textbooks of animal development
(e.g., Scott Gilbert’s Developmental Biology, Lewis Wolpert and
co-authors’ Principles of Development; Peter Lawrence’s The
Making of a Fly).
With the exception of the hormonal control of metamorphosis and the
development of imaginal discs, however, few other aspects of the
development of insects are included in such textbooks. Yet, how the egg
of a particular insect species develops into an adult includes many more
than these few topics. In addition, the same developmental process can
differ significantly across (and even within) insect orders. In Insect Development and Evolution, Bruce Heming has provided an
excellent, up-to-date book that includes the essential chapters on the
development of the most specious group of animals on earth.
This well written and illustrated textbook covers the embryonic and
postembryonic development of insects and their evolution. This area of
developmental biology is factually diverse because different insect
groups have sometimes found varied solutions to the same problems, from
how to mate and make an embryo to how to mature into an adult. It also
includes information obtained using different approaches, from “silk and
wax” (e.g., classic ligature experiments that demonstrated the hormonal
control of molting and metamorphosis) to molecular genetics (e.g., the
molecular bases of A/P axis formation in Drosophila).
Heming has tamed this disparate field by producing a well-structured
book and providing an evolutionary framework to every topic. The text
balances descriptive and more mechanistic information, the emphasis
being dictated by the current state of knowledge of the topic covered.
It also provides clear explanations of important concepts in
developmental biology, as well as the history and actors involved in key
findings in insect development.
The 13 chapters of Insect Development and Evolution are divided
into four sections of roughly similar length: female and male
reproductive systems and sex determination (chapters 1–4), embryonic
development (5–8), postembryonic development (9–12), and hexapod
ontogeny and evolution (13). Each chapter provides a good overview of
the topic and addresses the variations that occur in different insect
groups. The evolutionary variation of a given character is effectively
represented graphically by the repeated use of the same evolutionary
tree onto which is added the variation seen in this character among
insect orders.
The text is complemented by an adequate number of figures. Most of these
have been taken from other sources and, unlike the figures in most
textbooks, are all in black and white. This “no frills” choice could be
a benefit because it constrains the choice of figures to those that are
clearest (and cuts production costs). It is also a plus for teachers
like myself, who whenever possible, still use transparencies in their
lectures because black-and-white figures can be photocopied onto
transparencies with no loss of information.
This book is a tour de force that makes the general and specific details
of the development of insects accessible. As a result, Insect
Development and Evolution is useful in upper undergraduate and
graduate courses in insect development, and more generally, in courses
in developmental biology; it is also an invaluable reference for
researchers in these fields and insect biologists in general. The
burgeoning field of “Evo–devo,” in particular, should welcome this book;
every chapter documents the huge diversity as well as the conservation
in the developmental processes used by members of this taxon.
As with any book that attempts to cover such a huge diverse field, the
choice and coverage of topics may not satisfy everyone. At some level,
the coverage of Insect Development and Evolution is necessarily
superficial. Three hundred and eighty-three text pages is hardly enough
to cover the requisite topics in any depth. I have used this book in a
course in insect development, and there are topics that I wish were more
extensively covered. However, frequent use of the extensive bibliography
of 1,804 references, which span more than 100 years of research up to
2001, always provides leads to materials for all but the most
specialized questions.
Other readers, by contrast, may find some topics arcane or their
coverage too detailed. To those readers, I say be grateful that this
book exists, as the information that has been compiled here—often for
the first time—is mostly dispersed in hundreds of primary research
papers. As we go from understanding how animals develop to understanding
how animal diversity and evolution occurs, we will appreciate the
tremendous effort that Bruce Heming has made on our behalf by collecting
this information in this single accessible source.
Furthermore, I advocate expanding the book to include a description of
laboratory exercises. In my experience, insects provide materials for
exceptional developmental biology labs. Immature stages (embryos,
larvae, nymphs, or pupae) from different insect groups (hemimetabolous
insects such as crickets or grasshoppers; holometabolous ones such as Tribolium,
Manduca, and Drosophila) are easily
available at low cost and can be used in simple experiments and in
conjunction with readily available probes (e.g., antibodies) to
demonstrate critical concepts in developmental biology. I hope that
Bruce Heming will be willing to take on the challenge of producing such
a companion volume!
John
Ewer
Cornell University, Department of Entomology
5130 Comstock Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
E-mail:
je24@cornell.edu
American Entomologist
Vol. 52, No.4, Winter 2006 |
