The Jewel Box: How Moths Illuminate Nature's Hidden Rules

"Meditative take...Blackburn succeeds in drawing broad ecological lessons from the world of moths... Lepidopterists will want to take note."

Publishers Weekly

"Darwin spoke of life as a 'tangled bank' of interacting species, and William Blake, a century before Darwin, wrote of seeing 'the world in a grain of sand, and Heaven in a Wild Flower.' The moths in Blackburn's jewel box are like Blake's grain of sand: gems to be treasured not only for their beauty, but for the way their brilliance, captured during the dark of night, casts light on the complex whole of living nature."

Natural History

"We are creatures of the daylight, spending most of the night asleep, oblivious to life's continuing struggles that take place in the hours of darkness . This is a book that will appeal to those who have a fascination for moths and want to understand the world in which they live."
 

The Biologist

"Tim Blackburn shows us that moths are more than bugs that invade outdoor lights and bathroom drains. Through Blackburn's scientific passion and insight, these relatives of butterflies teach us a lot about evolution, nature, and the ecological consequences of our species, the real pests in the woolen chest of Earth."

Jack Davis, author of "The Bald Eagle" and "The Gulf"

"Not only is this a wonderful hands-on introduction to a diverse and enigmatic group of insects (moths), it is also an excellent primer on the basic principles of ecology, and crucially, the urgent need for humankind to live more gently on Earth."

Jonathan Balcombe, author of "Super Fly" and "What a Fish Knows"