Then there are the truly weird-vampire finches. We revisit George Washington on his deathbed to learn how ideas about blood and the supposedly therapeutic value of bloodletting, first devised by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, survived into relatively modern times.ĭark Banquet details our dangerous and sometimes deadly encounters with ticks, chiggers, and mites (the latter implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder-currently devastating honey bees worldwide). Using a sharp eye and mordant wit, Schutt makes a remarkably persuasive case that blood feeders, from bats to bedbugs, are as deserving of our curiosity as warmer and fuzzier species are-and that many of them are even worthy of conservation.Įxamining the substance that sustains nature’s vampires, Schutt reveals just how little we actually knew about blood until well into the twentieth century.

In Dark Banquet, zoologist Bill Schutt takes us on a fascinating voyage into the world of some of nature’s strangest creatures-the sanguivores. coli and the New Science of Lifeįor centuries, blood feeders have inhabited our nightmares and horror stories, as well as the shadowy realms of scientific knowledge. “Bill Schutt turns whatever fear and disgust you may feel towards nature’s vampires into a healthy respect for evolution’s power to fill every conceivable niche.”-Carl Zimmer, author of Parasite Rex and Microcosm: E. “A witty, scientifically accurate, and often intensely creepy exploration of sanguivorous creatures.”- San Francisco Chronicle

Dark Banquet by Bill Schutt