Bark beetles

Almost everyone has seen a similar picture: The picturesque mountain landscape, once covered in forests, now looks as if a disaster has swept through it. The forest disappeared, leaving only the stumps of dead trees. Šumava and Jeseníky could tell stories. We also heard about the culprit - bark beetles, which need to be ruthlessly eliminated. Or is it all a little different? What do we actually know about bark beetles? Do we know anything about them at all? And should we care about them?

It definitely is. There are more than 6,000 species of bark beetles and absolutely everything about them is interesting: what they look like, how they live, how they reproduce, how they cooperate with each other. Did you know, for example, that bark beetles discovered agriculture long before humans? That they like coffee, cork and gasoline cans? That males of some species are exact copies of their mothers? That nature has endowed many of them with absolutely crazy hairstyles?

Jiří Hulcr, an entomologist from the University of Florida and the world' s leading " bark beetle expert", has written a fresh, entertaining and readable book full of interesting information and unique photographs. From now on, you will look at bark beetles in a completely different way - because we have to look for the real cause of damaged forests somewhere other than these small and fascinating creatures.