Worcestershire Record No. 23 November 2007 p. 37

BUGS BRITANNICA

Would you be interested in contributing to a major work about British invertebrates? The naturalist and writer Peter Marren is conducting research for a book which, it is hoped, will do for invertebrates what Flora Britannica did for plants. The project is called Bugs Britannica. It will peer closely at the myriad ways in which insects and other invertebrates impact on our lives, whether as food or pollinators, pets or pests, or on our imaginations as in poetry, song, dance and films, not to mention symbols and advertising. It will range over the local names and nicknames we give them, through folk-beliefs and tales (whether or not they have any scientific foundation) to the ways we have found to collect, study and conserve them. The result, we hope, will be a unique portrait of the British and our ‘bugs’, whether they be terrestrial, freshwater or inshore marine, and from insects and spiders to worms, shells and even microscopic life.

You can find out more about the project by looking up the Bugs Britannica website at www.randomhouse.co.uk/bugsbritannica . The site includes a blog on which you can record your comments or story. Alternatively you can send your contribution direct to the author at: Peter Marren, c/o Bugs Britannica, Chatto & Windus, Random House, 20, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1 2SA. All contributions will be acknowledged in the book, whose publication date will probably be 2009 or 2010. Do help us if you can. Thank you.