PUBLICATIONS | MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS

INSECTS OF THE LOS ANGELES BASIN
by Charles L. Hogue

Published by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
448 pages, 500 illustrations (370 in color), tables, glossary, bibliography, index, 1993
Price: $45 cloth cover (ISBN 0-938644-32-7); $27.95 paper cover (ISBN 0-938644-29-7)

Photo Credit
The Common Green Darner, Anax junius, one of southern California's largest dragonflies. Photograph by Charles L. Hogue.

Southern California is home not only to the country's second largest metropolitan center but to an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 different kinds of insects. Of these, only about 1% should provoke alarmed vigilance in the human residents. The other 99% are harmless or actually extremely important to our well-being in that they are pollinators, food for other animals that we value, reducers of organic waste, or regulators of the populations of destructive organisms. These insects should be encouraged, and this book will help you to know them. Insects of the Los Angeles Basin provides an introduction to more than 400 of the most conspicuous or curious of these invertebrate animals and to about 70 spiders, mites and ticks, and related forms. With color photographs or drawings of all but a few species, the text describes the size and most striking physical characteristics of adults and immature stages and gives information on locomotion and behaviour, offensive and defensive maneuvers, mating rituals, food preferences, nests and traps, and noises and scents. The specific habitat and general geographic range of each insect are included, as are lore and superstition regarding some notorious species. A highly readable book, Insects of the Los Angeles Basin is an essential reference for southern California gardeners, teachers, students, campers, and anyone who is interested in nature, ecology, and environmental protection.

Dr. Charles L. Hogue began his long association with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in his high school years, in the museum's science workshop for gifted students. In 1962, four months after receiving his doctorate from U.C.L.A., he was hired as the museum's Curator of Entomology, and he held this position until his death in 1992. Hogue was a world authority on the fly family Blephariceridae and author or coauthor of more than 100 scientific and popular articles as well as four books, including California Insects. He was also a gifted scientific illustrator and photographer, and his images have appeared in many articles and books besides his own.