Two edited biology volumes for experts synthesize decades of research on their topics. Insect Outbreaks Revisited, edited by Pedro Barbosa, Deborah Letourneau, and Anurag Agrawal, addresses ways of understanding, predicting, and learning from insect outbreaks. The “revisited” in the title signals that this volume covers new developments since publication of the eponymous book also edited by Barbosa in 1987. Chapters consider outbreaks from varied perspectives, arranged in thematic sections (e.g., “Physiological and Life History Perspectives”; “Population Dynamics and Multispecies Interactions”; “Population, Community, and Ecosystem Ecology”; “Genetics and Evolution”). Mostly considering herbivorous insects, the book contrasts “top-down” understandings (focused on predators) and “bottom-up” understandings (based on plants). This book is refreshingly readable and would be accessible to undergraduates, while also attractive to graduate and faculty readers. Less readable, but representing equally varied perspectives, is 50 Years of Bat Research, edited by Burton Lim, M. Brock Fenton, R. Mark Brigham, Shahroukh Mistry, Allen Kurta, Erin Gillam, Amy Russell, and Jorge Ortega. This text traces the development of bat research since the inception of the North American Society for Bat Research (NASBR) fifty years ago. Aside from history of the organization, chapters focus on contributions of various NASBR scientists, including developments in echolocation, ecology, feeding, flight, molecular systematics, and parasitology. Research tools and methods range from spatiotemporal predictability (STP) to radiotelemetry and stress a phenetic approach to bat biology. Although this book would see little use in an undergraduate library, it could be useful to graduate students or faculty in mammalogy.
