Small Game Hunter takes the reader through many encounters with invertebrates that the author has had over the course of his career and around the globe. From a fascination with moths and light traps to chasing the elegance of damsel- and dragonflies. From his special interest with the complex world of spiders to insect farming as a future food for a growing human population. But Small Game Hunter is not just about science, it also ranges across the arts from puppet plays to opera, dance to visual art. It is a cultural and scientific kaleidoscope, but one which always has invertebrates at its focus. At a time when invertebrates around the globe are in sharp decline, this book is a rallying call to appreciate and conserve the small things that run our world.
For forty years Peter Smithers worked as an entomologist/ecologist at the University of Plymouth on a wide range of invertebrate-related topics, his first love being spiders. In the 1990s, he became involved with the Royal Entomological Society as an editor and event organiser, also holding the position of vice president. He is now retired and lives in Bristol.
"[...] renews the call to pay attention to the small things that run the world, because "the more yo look, the more you see". This excellent little book, and the career it describes, are living proof of the truth of that argument"
– Ken Thompson, The Niche 55(4), December 2024