A NATURAL HISTORY OF SEX: The Ecology...

A NATURAL HISTORY OF SEX: The Ecology and Evolution of Mating Behavior by Adrian Forsyth, illustrations by Linda Bleck (Chapters: $10.95; 192 pp.). Cole Porter wrote, “Birds do it, bees do it/ Even educated fleas do it.” In this entertaining study, Adrian Forsyth explains how and why some animals and plants do it the way they do: Why male honeybees often explode after consummating their nuptial flight; why female acorn woodpeckers toss the first eggs they lay out of their nests; how some mites are born pregnant. Behaviors that initially seem bizarre often prove to be efficient solutions to the challenge of ensuring the existence of one’s genes for another generation. Although Forsyth describes the mating habits of various primates with obvious relish, he warns that using these patterns to explain human behavior is risky at best: Homo sapiens have complicated the problem with innumerable cultural rules and taboos.