Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites

'Your world will be larger for reading this book' CHLOE DALTON author of Raising Hare Welcome to the hidden, squirming world of parasites - some of the most misunderstood, and most important, creatures with whom we share the Earth. And our bodies. There is the tapeworm, which can grow one hundred and twenty feet within the gut of a whale.The tsetse fly, a notorious vector of disease whose needle-like mouth can pierce even crocodile skin. And the most universal symbol of parasitic behaviour: the much-mythologised leech.Long villainised, yet vital to every ecosystem on Earth, these parasitic creatures have driven evolution, shaped civilisations, and altered the course of human history. And we have almost entirely ignored them. Dr Dino Martins is an award-winning entomologist and biologist from Kenya's Turkana Basin - where life on Earth began - and he has made it his life's mission to demystify these beguiling beings.Hidden Creatures takes us on a journey around the world ten times over