3.Insects Are Earth's Most Important Animals, Humans Included

Using this as a linking theme allowed me to explore, among other topics, insect origins and evolution, the origins of flight, the development of complex parental care, the surprisingly widespread social lives of insects, and the origins of the great insect societies. Insects were the first creatures to conquer the air, an evolutionary leap that is an undoubted part of their success story. However, the evolution of complete metamorphosis may have played an even greater part – perhaps the most successful thing evolution ever came up with. That magical transformation of earthbound larva into winged adult is all the more fascinating when we realise how, in so many ways, it helps to shape the whole planet. Explaining the ecological success of insects also shows why they underpin most terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and therefore provides a deep background to the unfolding crisis of the rapid decline of insects that’s hit the headlines over the last few years.

利用这一主题，我可以探索昆虫的起源和进化、飞行的起源、复杂的父母照顾的发展、昆虫惊人的广泛社会生活以及伟大昆虫社会的起源等主题。昆虫是最早征服空气的生物，这一进化飞跃无疑是它们成功故事的一部分。然而，完全变态的进化可能发挥了更大的作用——也许是进化史上最成功的东西。当我们意识到它在很多方面有助于塑造整个星球时，从地球上的幼虫到有翼成虫的神奇转变就更加迷人了。解释昆虫在生态上的成功也表明了为什么它们是大多数陆地和淡水生态系统的基础，因此为过去几年成为头条新闻的昆虫迅速减少的危机提供了深刻的背景。

There are many excellent entomology books already out there and more appearing all the time. Most that deal in depth with the details of insect evolution and ecology, however, are seen more as textbooks. But I wanted to cover all these topics, which have always fascinated me, in a way which a general reader would find equally fascinating and to pull all these varied subjects into one grand story of how insects became what they are. In addition, as a wildlife filmmaker and photographer, I love capturing the wonder of insects in images, so the book is also heavily illustrated with my photographs from around the world, hopefully making it all the more accessible.

SN：现在已经有很多优秀的昆虫学书籍出现了，而且越来越多。然而，大多数深入研究昆虫进化和生态学细节的书籍更多地被视为教科书。但我想以一种普通读者会觉得同样迷人的方式，涵盖所有这些一直让我着迷的话题，并将所有这些不同的主题纳入一个关于昆虫如何变成现在的宏大故事中。此外，作为一名野生动物电影制作人和摄影师，我喜欢用图像捕捉昆虫的奇观，所以这本书也大量地用我来自世界各地的照片进行了插图，希望能让它变得更容易阅读。

Are you hopeful that as people learn more about insects they will come to respect them more for who they are and what they really mean to the health of our magnificent planet?

你是否希望随着人们对昆虫的了解越来越多，他们会更加尊重昆虫，因为它们是谁，以及它们对我们这个宏伟星球的健康真正意味着什么?