"A fascinating and engaging read." Doug Tallamy, author of How Can I Help?

Full of jaw-dropping wonder, cutting-edge science and immersive storytelling, a leading scientist of insect migration reveals a world on a different scale.

For many, insects inspire creepy-crawly fear. To Dr Will Hawkes, bugs are complex creatures who alter every facet of our world with the beat of their tiny wings. In The Most Remarkable Insect Migrants, Hawkes takes us across continents and through centuries, tracking the impact of our many-legged friends.

Each year, insects the size of a baked bean migrate thousands of kilometres unnoticed above our heads. From the cabbage white butterfly to a buff-tailed bumblebee and even the humble house fly, these fragile insects cross oceans and navigate continents. Using senses that we humans cannot even perceive, they’re able to analyse wind strength and direction, navigate by the Milky Way, develop super strength in their flight muscles, and much more. These tiny travellers are also climate heroes – creators of biodiversity and climate resilience, pollination, soil health and crop security – and have influenced our folklore and culture in ways unseen – until now.

With verdant prose, The Most Remarkable Insect Migrants blends cutting-edge science with engaging storytelling in a passionate narrative — calling us to protect our tiniest of climate allies.

About The Author

Will Leo Hawkes grew up in the Ceiriog Valley in North Wales, where he spent his childhood catching insects and newts in the Welsh hills. Since then, he has become a leading expert in insect migration and written numerous scientific papers on the subject.

Will studied Zoology at the University of Exeter in Cornwall before completing his PhD there. A post-doctoral position in Switzerland followed, interspersed with training periods at the Natural History Museum in London. Will has travelled the world researching exciting, new theories on insect migration, discovering the identities and movement patterns of migratory insects, and conducting fieldwork from the Swiss Alps to the Maldives.

He now works for the invertebrate conservation charity Buglife, while also running workshops and talk series for organisations including the Royal Entomological Society and the Lost Gardens of Heligan.