Join Bruce the Bug Guy on a hunt for the most interesting insects in Minnesota--through the forest, across the prairie, and even in your own backyard.

"A handy field guide to 444 of our most distinctive and interesting insects"--Cover.

Presents photos, descriptions, and information about more than 550 insects and arthropods.

Since the early nineteenth century, when entomologists first popularized the unique biological and behavioral characteristics of insects, technological innovators and theorists have proposed insects as templates for a wide range of technologies. In Insect Media, Jussi Parikka analyzes how insect forms of social organization-swarms, hives, webs, and distributed intelligence-have been used to structure modern media technologies and the network society, providing a radical new perspective on the interconnection of biology and technology. Through close engagement with the pioneering work of insect ethologists, including Jakob von Uexkull and Karl von Frisch, posthumanist philosophers, media theorists, and contemporary filmmakers and artists, Parikka develops and insect theory of media, one taht conceptualizes modern media as more than the products of individual human actors, social interests, or technological determinants. They are, rather, profoundly nonhuman phenomena that both draw on and mimic the alien lifeworlds of insects.

Not unlike the wealth of wildflowers which they help to pollinate, the flower flies display a rich variety of colors and forms: from tiny ant-sized flies to large, brightly-colored mimics of wasps and hornets. This colorful group of insects has been neglected for far too long. This new field guide corrects this oversight, revealing the marvelous diversity and natural history of these beneficial insects. In addition to descriptions and color photographs for 138 species, included in the guide are keys to several complicated genera and a complete checklist for all the recorded species known to Minnesota. Common, but commonly overlooked, learning about the flower flies in this richly illustrated book may, quite possibly, change your view of flies forever. Who is This Book For? For gardeners who want a guide to some of the visitors to their flowering plants. For farmers who want to firm up their knowledge of beneficial insects. For naturalists who want to explore another curious facet of nature.