Kinky Cats, Immortal Amoebas, and Nine-Armed Octopuses: Weird, Wild, and Wonderful Behaviors in the Animal World

Which insect, from the moment she becomes pregnant, is eaten from the inside by her own brood until she is nothing but a dry husk? Which mollusk sometimes engages in sex so rough that its penis breaks off and is absorbed into the body of the female? Which fish, while still in its mother's oviduct, gobbles up as many as a dozen of its siblings so that by the time its born it is the only survivor?

There's a reason they're called animals they don't behave like people. The various ways they do behave, however, are fascinating, particularly when they're explained as entertainingly as they are in Kinky Cats, Immortal Amoebas and Nine-Armed Octopuses. Divided into 25 chapters on such subjects as marriage, adultery, divorce, incest and birth control, this extraordinary collection of bite-size bits of information will forever change the way readers look at their neighbors in the animal world.

For the curious, the answers to the above questions are: (1) midges, (2) octopuses and (3) sand and mackerel sharks.