Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Small Creatures, Smart Design: Insect Anatomy -- ch. 2 Six-legged Sex: Dating, Mating and Parenting -- ch. 3 Eat or Be Eaten: Insects in the Food Chain -- ch. 4 Insects and Plants: A Never-ending Race -- ch. 5 Busy Flies, Flavoursome Bugs: Insects and Our Food -- ch. 6 The Circle of Life -- and Death: Insects as Caretakers -- ch. 7 From Silk to Shellac: Industries of Insects -- ch. 8 Lifesavers, Pioneers and Nobel Prize-winners: Insights from Insects -- ch. 9 Insects and Us: What's Next?.

Out of sight, underfoot, unseen beyond fleeting scuttles or darting flights, insects occupy a hidden world, yet are essential to sustaining life on earth. Insects influence our ecosystem like a ripple effect on water. They arrived when life first moved to dry land, they preceded ? and survived ? the dinosaurs, they outnumber the grains of sand on all the world's beaches, and they will be here long after us. Working quietly but tirelessly, they give us food, uphold our ecosystems, can heal our wounds and even digest plastic. They could also provide us with new solutions to the antibiotics crisis, assist in disaster zones and inspire airforce engineers with their flying techniques. But their private lives are also full of fun, intrigue and wonder - musical mating rituals; house-hunting for armies of beetle babies; metamorphosing into new characters; throwing parties in fermenting sap; cultivating fungi for food; farming smaller species for honey dew and always ensuring that what is dead is decomposed, ready to become life once again. Here, we will discover life and death, drama and dreams, all on a millimetric scale. Like it or not, Earth is the planet of insects, and this is their extraordinary story.

Translated from the Norwegian.