'What a terrible calamity, what a stupefying circumstance, if mosquitoes were the size of camels, and a herd of wild slugs the size of elephants invaded our gardens and had to be shot with rifles...'

A blue scarab which makes the sound of a terrifying death-tick. A moth with the markings of a dead man’s face. An empire of intelligent, aggressive, and colossal ants. The insect kingdom has finally come to seek retribution for humankind's negligence. Never has a creature been so topical – with headlines warning of the mosquito-bearing viruses, fire ants destroying power sources, invasive yellow ladybirds, or an ecological insect apocalypse that threatens the very balance of our natural world. With growing concerns about global warming, pesticides, and genetically modified crops, Eco-Gothic is moving to the fore in modern scholarship, and this collection allows readers to be a fly on the wall to some of the creepiest and crawliest accounts of insectoid horror from the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, E.F. Benson, and Jane G. Austin. Fear indeed walks on many legs.

Introduction

The Sphinx - Edgar Allan Poe
The Blue Beetle: A Confession - A. G. Gray, Jun.
The Mummy's Soul - Anonymous
After Three Thousand Years - Jane G. Austin
A Dream of Wild Bees - Olive Schreiner
The Moth - H. G. Wells
The Captivity of the Professor - A. Lincoln Green
The Dream of Akinosuke and Butterflies - Lafcadio Hearn
Caterpillars - E. F. Benson
An Egyptian Hornet - Algernon Blackwood
The Blue Cockroach - Christopher Blayre
The Wicked Flea - J. U. Giesy
The Miracle of the Lily - Clare Winger Harris
Warning Wings - Arlton Eadie
Beyond the Star Curtain - Garth Bentley
Leiningen Versus the Ants - Carl Stephenson