Description
Book SynopsisA richly illustrated and up-close look at the secret lives of spiders and other arachnids
The American Southwest is home to an extraordinary diversity of arachnids, from spitting spiders that squirt silk over their prey to scorpions that court one another with kissing and dancing. Amazing Arachnids presents these enigmatic creatures as you have never seen them before. Featuring a wealth of color photos of more than 300 different kinds of arachnids from eleven taxonomic orders--both rare and common speciesthis stunningly illustrated book reveals the secret lives of arachnids in breathtaking detail, including never-before-seen images of their underground behavior.
Amazing Arachnids covers all aspects of arachnid biology, such as anatomy, sociality, mimicry, camouflage, and venoms. You will meet bolas spiders that lure their victims with fake moth pheromones, fishing spiders that woo their mates with silk-wrapped gifts, chivalrous cellar spiders, tiny
Trade Review
"This book is in line to win the Greg Laden’s Blog Science Book of the Year. It looks like a high quality, almost coffee table like, book on the arachnids, things like mites and spiders and such. But that is only what it appears to be on the surface. Just below the surface, it is a compendium of evolutionary amazingness, a detailed description of the photogenic history, behavioral biology, and co-evolution of plants and animals, with almost all the protagonists in the numerous loosely connected stories being one sort or another of amazing arachnid."---Greg Laden, Greg Laden's Blog
"If you are as fond of or fascinated by all things eight legged as Cowles, then Amazing Arachnids is the book for you."---Roberta Gibson, Wild About Ants
"I’m not an arachnid specialist, but I found her treatment of even the most obscure arachnid subgroups to be original, readable, and richly detailed."---Stephen A. Marshall, Canadian Field-Naturalist
"Amazing Arachnids is an ambitious text, introducing the biology of nearly all arachnid orders with an emphasis on basic taxonomy and reproductive behavior. This is one of the few volumes to treat arachnids as a whole, including mites and ticks, which are often and unfortunately segregated into their own discipline . . . . I hope this book finds its audience and opens more eyes to the weird and wonderful world of the arachnids."---Eric Yip, The Quarterly Review of Biology
