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You think the brussels sprouts you ate as a kid were borderline child abuse? Consider this: when the dung beetle children gather round the old dining leaf, what do you think Mama dung beetle answers when the cherubs ask "what's for dinner?" S.O.S, of course. The culinary habits of dung beetles are one of the more gross (but, let's be honest, fascinating) tidbits bestowed on the insect knowledge-hungry in
Beetles, one of 10 volumes in
Bug City. Hosted by Christina Ricci (Casper, The Addams Family), Dr. Art Evans and a wisecracking puppet named Bugsy Seagull,
Beetles informs viewers that there are 350,000 beetle species out there in bug land; to put that number in perspective, this means that every 5th specie is a beetle (I have four siblings, and I've always suspected my sister Dawn was a little weird, so there you go). The program combines general information about beetles as a whole (they have a head, thorax and abdomen, and most can fly) with specific details about individual bugs (museums of natural history use a bunch of skin-eating beetles to literally spit-polish the meat off a skeleton; after which they eat each other, which—as Doc Evans points out—means "no muss, no fuss, no paychecks"). Young would-be entomologists will also learn how to build a beetle habitat themselves—a good thing to know around science fair project time. Super (natural) close-up footage of bugs in the wild, great believe-it-or-not bug trivia, and a solid introduction to the basics of insect biology make
Bug City an entertaining and informative choice for both public and curriculum collections. Other titles in the series include:
Ants, Aquatic Insects, Bees, Butterflies & Moths, Flies & Mosquitoes, House & Backyard Insects, Ladybugs & Fireflies, Spiders & Scorpions, and
Crickets, Grasshoppers & Friends. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice.
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