Everyone s favourite writer turns his humorous and keenly observant eye to the wonderful world of insects.

In the insect world you will find:

Cicadas that carry their own drums within their bodies

Ants that keep pet blights in their nests, so they can suck out their sweet juices, much as we milk cows and goats

Spiders that use web strings to swing from just like a favourite action hero

And many more fascinating and bizarre facts about these tiny beings that live among us.

Ruskin Bond s books on nature have delighted readers for generations. Here, he writes about some astonishing six-legged, compound-eyed creatures. He describes many insects (and a few that are not) and the way they live, mate, camouflage, sing, catch their prey, and bring up their young.

He fills the pages with amazing descriptions in his uniquely witty style from the butterfly s life cycle, where the caterpillar eats until it bursts out of its skin, to dragonflies that accelerate to 60 miles an hour mid-air, to the reasons why crickets and grasshoppers trill merrily in their green homes.

Filled with beautiful and cheerful colour illustrations, Beetles and Other Friends brings alive a glorious and intriguing world that we rarely stop to observe.