Read more
This book explores the natural history of sex in urban bacteria, fungi, plants, and nonhuman animals. Kenneth D. Frank illuminates the reproductive behavior of scores of species.
List of contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Nonflowering Plants
2. Herbaceous Annual Plants
3. Herbaceous Perennial Plants
4. Trees and Woody Vines
5. Butterflies and Moths
6. Bees, Wasps, and Ants
7. Dragonflies and Praying Mantises
8. Other Insects
9. Invertebrates Exclusive of Insects
10. Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fish
11. Mammals
12. Birds
13. Fungi, Bacteria, and Lichens
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
Photo Credits
Index
About the author
Kenneth D. Frank is a retired physician whose current research focuses on how plants and animals adapt to urbanization. His work has been published in journals including Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, Entomological News, and the Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society.
Jonathan Silvertown is professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution (2017) and The Comedy of Error: Why Evolution Made Us Laugh (2020).
Summary
Cities pose formidable obstacles to nonhuman life. Vast expanses of asphalt and concrete are inhospitable to plants and animals; traffic noise and artificial light disturb natural rhythms; sewage and pollutants imperil existence. Yet cities teem with life: In rowhouse neighborhoods, tiny flowers bloom from cracks in the sidewalk. White clover covers lawns, its seeds dispersed by shoes and birds. Moths flutter and spiders weave their webs near electric lights. Sparrows and squirrels feast on the scraps people leave behind. Pairs of red-tailed hawks nest on window ledges. How do wild plants and animals in urban areas find mates? How do they navigate the patchwork of habitats to reproduce while avoiding inbreeding? In what ways do built environments enable or inhibit mating?
This book explores the natural history of sex in urban bacteria, fungi, plants, and nonhuman animals. Kenneth D. Frank illuminates the reproductive behavior of scores of species. He examines topics such as breeding systems, sex determination, sex change, sexual conflict, sexual trauma, sexually transmitted disease, sexual mimicry, sexual cannibalism, aphrodisiacs, and lost sex. Frank offers a guide to urban reproductive diversity across a range of conditions, showing how understanding of sex and mating furthers the appreciation of biodiversity. He presents reproductive diversity as elegant but vulnerable, underscoring the consequences of human activity. Featuring compelling photographs of a multitude of life forms in their city habitats, this book provides a new lens on urban natural history.
Additional text
Although there are many theories about how nonhuman life survives in cities, new insight comes from a firsthand look at the diverse range of organisms that live alongside us. Flowering plants, birds, reptiles... Kenneth D. Frank takes readers on a walk through the city, illuminating a universal biological principle: finding a mate. Lavishly illustrated, full of naturalist erudition and evolutionary curiosities, this book reveals that courses in ecology can be found within walking distance.
