Insects have long populated American art. Consider, for example, the paintings produced for Audubon's Birds of America. But in those works, insects were subservient to another class of animal. Today, and for the past quarter century, biodiversity has dominated art of natural history. Insects in Contemporary Art, published by Schiffer Publishing, samples the spectrum of work being produced by contemporary artists for whom insects incentivize both scientific inquiry and inspired creativity.-David J. Wagner, Ph.D.

, Curator, and Author, American Wildlife ArtThe world of insects is complex and wonderful far beyond our imagination. The artists in this book have had the wisdom to accept this gift from nature, and to find the inspiration and beauty that is there for the taking.--Walter R. Tschinkel Florida State University?The class of insects, with its approximately 900,000 described species, is of immense ecological and economic significance, but insects are also unsurpassed with their amazing diversity and spectacular beauty. Ernst Haeckel, the great evolutionary biologist and artist once remarked "nature has an astounding 'sense' of beauty ". Indeed, insects are the paramount testimonials for nature's creative marvels as can be seen in Rooney's book.--Bert Hölldobler, German behavioral biologist, sociobiologist, and evolutionary biologist.