Reviews (3)

Incredible amount of breadth, really good degree of depth
This book has some of everything and I mean in terms of all sorts of insects and all sorts of aspects of their lives. It talks to the different orders of insects, fosilized insects, their bodies, inside and out, diversity, mating, metomorphosis, caring for offspring, escaping from predators, etc etc. The text is set up such that a question is posed (e.g. How fast can insects run?) and then there is an anwer (e.g. One of the fastest running insects is the American cockroach.......which has been clocked at running at a rate of about 32 inches per second or 1.8 miles per hour......) Lots of really fun infomation and it just seems to cover everything - some parts are more technical that others. Great pictures/photographs as well.

All your bug questions answered
I really enjoyed this book. It has a very wide scope, and is broken down into these sections: 1)bug basics 2)bugs that are not insects 3)fossilized insects 4)insect bodies; the outside 5)insect bodies; the inside 6)insect diversity 6)growth and metamorphosis 7)finding a mate & mating 8)caring for offspring 9)insect behavior 10)social insects 11)eaters of insects 12)escaping from predators 13)beneficial insects 14)insects that people eat 15)pest insects 16)contolling pests 17)the downside of insecticides 18)more interesting insect info I discovered many answers to questions I had wondered about for years: "do insects feel pain?" "how is the silkworm cocoon coverted to silk fiber?" "how do insects survive the winter?" "is there any concrete evidence that large eyespots frighten birds?" "do people eat insect products other than honey?" "are centipedes venomous?"...and many more. The answers range in length from a few sentences to half a page, just enough to satisfy your curiosity. There are also some good, close-up color photographs.

An Encyclopedia Of Bug Trivia
After listening to Dr. Waldbauer's interview on Public Radio I was captured by his passion for the interesting world of bug trivia, and bought the book. A compendium of bug facts and fables, presented in a format that allows you to read the book from cover to cover as well as use it as a quick reference guide. Both educational and entertaining, it answers questions that range from "how does a spider spin a web?" to "how do mosquitoes locate their victims?". Also includes a very useful index and exhaustive references. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Combining authoritative, easy-to-read essays with accurate illustrations and full color photographs, this encyclopedia covers all of the families that encompass the million-plus species of insects and spiders. A unique and thoroughly current volume, it includes:
- Specially commissioned articles written by a team of scientists, zoologists and expert researchers
- Insightful and up-to-date information on insect and spider biology and behavior
- The latest scientific findings and interpretations
- Features that explore and discuss in depth topics that are of particular interest and importance, for example, Beetles as Agents of Biological Control

In addition to a comprehensive text, each species entry also has a Factfile for quick retrieval of essential data:
- Scientific Order and Population
- Distribution and Habitat
- Size, Color and Features
- Reproduction, Life Cycle and Longevity
- Conservation Status

Scientists, zoologists and expert researchers have contributed specially commissioned articles. These specialists, all experts in their fields, are actively involved in conducting frontline scientific or behavioral research. The inclusion of their latest findings and interpretations sets this title apart. ... Read more

Book Description

In many parts of the country, spring into fall is the "hot season" for Lyme disease.Upwards of 70% of Lyme disease victims are infected in their own yards, and the number of Lyme disease cases has been climbing in recent years.Fortunately, the arsenal of tick-control measures has also recently expanded, and these tick-thwarting strategies are detailed in the new book "Ticks Off! Controlling Ticks That Transmit Lyme Disease on Your Property".

The tick control measures described in the book focus on two main themes; landscape alterations and host control.These strategies, applied in tandem, are likely to be more effective in substantially reducing tick populations compared to using any single method of tick control.

As Lyme disease has become more common in many parts of the United States, more and more property owners are seriously exploring tick control measures.Ticks Off! is designed as a concise, up-to-date resource for controlling Lyme disease-transmitting ticks.Written by an experienced tick biologist, this book will give you the tools to make your yard inviting for humans, but not for ticks.Heavily referenced so you can do further research yourself on ticks and tick control.Softcover, eighty pages, 13 illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best Book on Tarantulas out there!
John Browning's Book, Tarantulas, Is the best, most comprehensive, book on tarantulas I own. It explains how raise and breed your tarantulas, whats kinds food and housing to give them, and how to enter them in local 4-H contests! If have you the slightest intrest in tarantulas, buy this book. Tell Em' Tarantula Boy sent you. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Hey Insect Hunters!
If you want to keep your bugs alive, you need this book. It gives excellent descriptions for building a home, collecting insects and caring for your new pet so that it actually stays alive. What I love the most isthe last half of the book that describes common insects and what they eat.The butterfly section is particularly well done as it identifies both thecaterpillar and butterfly. Get this book for guaranteed smiles on thoseinsect hunters' faces. ... Read more

Book Description

"This handbook, 39 years in the making, is a guide to the identification of 300 species of adult fruit flies found in North America. It is written by recognized authorities and should prove to be a standard identification guide for years to come."--ARBA ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great for all Diptera
This book is a great resource to have! ... Read more

Book Description

Snake venom that digests human flesh. A building cleared of every living thing by a band of tiny spiders. An infant insect eating its living prey from within, saving the vital organs for last. These are among the deadly feats of natural engineering you'll witness in The Red Hourglass, prize-winning author Gordon Grice's masterful, poetic, often dryly funny exploration of predators he has encountered around his rural Oklahoma home.

Grice is a witty and intrepid guide through a world where mating ends in cannibalism, where killers possess toxins so lethal as to defy our ideas of a benevolent God, where spider remains, scattered like "the cast-off coats of untidy children," tell a quiet story of violent self-extermination. It's a world you'll recognize despite its exotic strangeness--the world in which we live. Unabashedly stepping into the mix, Grice abandons his role as objective observer with beguiling dark humor--collecting spiders and other vermin, decorating a tarantula's terrarium with dollhouse furniture, or forcing a battle between captive insects because he deems one "too stupid to live."

Kill. Eat. Mate. Die. Charting the simple brutality of the lives of these predators, Grice's starkly graceful essays guide us toward startling truths about our own predatory nature. The Red Hourglass brings us face to fanged face with the inadequacy of our distinctions between normal and abnormal, dead and alive, innocent and evil. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

Riveting
Who knew just how deadly the world around us was? Grice covers a wide range of beasts: Spiders (Black Widow, Tarantula, Recluse a.k.a. Violin Spider), rattlesnake, pig, dogs (wolves, coyotes, jackals) and the praying mantis. He has a lyrical eloquence and interstices natural philosophy into the essays, making the book far more than a recitation or list of aspects of bestial killers.
One slightly disturbing feature is Grice's juvenile behavoir in collecting insects and tossing them together in tanks to see who lives. I began to feel that I was reading the Diary of a Madman, and hurried through these anecdotes.
The abilities of these various animals to kill and their instincts to murder--for food or fun--were fascinating, as were Grice's parallels to us as human predators.

Grice takes on arthropods with Poe-like sensitivity
What the reader gets with this book are seven essays written by a literary/humanities based college professor on seven particular predators: the black widow, the praying mantis, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, pigs, dogs, and the brown recluse spider. The writing is surpisingly good and the subject matter, while somewhat dark and gory, is fascinating.

The reader from Michigan calls this book 'backyard naturalism' in a derogatory manner. I am a biology major and, although the majority of Grice's claims appear consistent with similar data I have seen, this is not a hard science book; criticizing it in that context is an apples verses oranges category mistake. Conversely, I praise this work as 'backyard naturalism' at its best. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Red Hourglass from front to back. Take a bit of Peter Matthiessen's literary organicism, a pinch of Steven King's macabre involvment, E. O. Wilson's entomology, a dash of Desiderius Erasmus' sad, pragmatic humor, and some of Montaigne's candor, and you can wile away sumptuous moments zoosynthesizing the adventure of the 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' crossed with a bored boy's deific experimentation with arthropods, among other animals; all written with starkness and skill. What's a long pig? one may ask. The very sight of egregious brown recluse bites makes me kiss the soil of northern California.

This book is a good mix of the literary and scientific milieus. It draws one in by the curiousity and repulsion of the subject matter as ruse for the author's peculiar expository skill.

Erroneous Essays
A lazyman's nature book, "The Red Hourglass" is pure anthropomorphism--the author, who gives entirely ancecdodal evidence about nature's various predators, devoid of a single footnote (his sources for the anecdotes are rarely named; they are simply called "a scientist," or "a doctor"), doesn't seem to have wanted to concern himself with empirical, noted evidence. In other words, the reader has to take Grice's word about the accuracy of his "scientific" and historical comments, since he doesn't want to be weighted down by bibliographic sources or even noting his own sources. Even the National Enquirer or other cheesy newspaper tabloid occasionally mentions its sources. To be sure, this book makes for chilly reading, despite a less-than-sophisticated prose style, but don't rely on it as a nature guide. Rather, if you must read it, do so as a single person's view of the world of predators. Without scientific background or foundations, his voice is no more authoritative than yours or mine.

Informative and Entertaining
Grice portrays the predators of people in an enlightening and interesting way. I was so mesmerized by his experiences with such predators as the black widow, the pig, the tarantula, that I could not put the book down. The Red Hourglass was very well written, it provided factual information as witnessed by the author himself. It was so incredibly written, presenting the information not as a fact list, or text book style in leaving out description and emotion, but as a true literary masterpiece. I enjoyed this book immensly and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in nature, predation or wildlife biology.

great prose, sophisticated biology
Do yourself a favor and buy this book. If you like to read about the lives of strange critters, and appreciate fine prose and precise natural historical observation,you will enjoy this book immensely. The author also betrays a sophisticated understanding of both the science, and mystery, of life, which he nevertheless wears lightly. The down-to-earth spirit of Nebraska and Oklaholma also shines through the deceptively simple prose style. Finally, the book is devoid of any of the man and nature, circle of life, save the whale posing that mars so many nature books. This is true, backyard natural history, not politics. If you think you might like this book, you will. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first book dedicated specifically to showing the important roles insects have played in mythology, and is a comprehensive and readable survey of insect myths from around the world.The book ranges from older, better-known insect myths such as sacred scarabs to new unpublished subjects such as insects as examples of parallel mythology. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Part of our culture too
All cultures use myth to explain what they see or can't understand. As prevalent as insects are, it makes sense that there are myths on the origin of insects, and myths where insects are symbolic. This short, well-illustrated book introduces interesting topics such as "archaeoastronomy" or "parallel mythology", where separated cultures having similar myths. Examples include the metamorphism of butterflies and negative connotations of the flies (with the Navaho "Big Fly" being a striking exception).

The entomological etymology (word origin) was enriching, and I most enjoyed the Greek origin (psyche) of butterfly and soul. The chapter on arthropod references in the Bible, was helpful, and if nothing else highlights the prevalence of locust in the Middle East. "Go to the ant, you sluggard, watch her ways and get wisdom..." has long been a favorite of mine.

With my own interest in Odonata, I appreciated images of the Haidu tattoo of the mythical dragonfly and Navaho sand painting. I would also refer to the Oglala Sioux dragonfly symbolism in the Sacred Hoop (see Ed McGaa - Mother Earth Spirituality). This book also initiates thoughts on how the symbolism is still with us today, such as the Death's head moth in the "Silence of the Lamb".

One of a Kind
Ants, beetles, and flies... Oh, my! You'll find these and more in this bestiary of the insect world. Whether your interest in insect mythology is sparked by your favorite scarab bracelet or is of a more scholarly nature, this volume is a valuable resource.

Although you may find brief references to the mythological roles of insects in individual societies, here you have them assembled from both the Old and New Worlds for comparison and contrast. The ant, lauded for its industry by the Chinese, becomes the spiteful, diseased villain of the Pueblo Indians. Throughout the cultures included here, myths use the characteristics of insects to create a symbology recognizable from common usage. The expression "busy as a bee" indicates a cultural respect for the bee's reputation as a hard worker that seems to be the consensus of many cultures. On the other hand, you have the Egyptians giving credit to the fly for its persistence which might be more difficult to honor.

The Old World section begins with early naturalists who made mythology part of our science, thanks to their classical education. You'll find the scarab with other insects of Egyptian lore and an update on the insects of the Bible. New translations have made it necessary to change more than half of the King James Version references on which many studies have been based. It seems the poetic license of translation extended to the insect world. The more entomologically correct translations are recommended along with a table based on the Revised English Bible.

The New World chapters discuss the insects found in Mesoamerican astronomy and Native American mythology. The familiar constellations take on a whole new dimension in the interpretations of Mayan and other cultures. Who knew they were in the stars and on totem poles?

While this is fascinating for general readers, the scholarship of Insect Mythology validates it for use by experts. The authors' credentials combine to form a sound basis for their work backed by substantial references and amply illustrated. They have made the information very readable and included a table of contents, lists of illustrations and tables, and a thorough index. This makes the it easily accessible for the readers, be they entomologist, Biblical scholar or the owner of a scarab bracelet. ... Read more

Book Description

Beginners and longtime butterfly watchers alike will find much to celebrate in Butterflies in the Backyard. Part natural history, part gardening guide, the book contains solid information on butterfly behavior and habitats and also explains in careful detail how to attract these lovely creatures to your backyard with plants and feeders. Includes up-to-date information on migration and conservation efforts, as well as an identification guide for the most common North American species. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Book!
We here at Planet Insect found this to be a book of facinating photographs, and offers a keen intro to the world of insects. Fits well into any library. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Charming!
A tiny jewel studded with quotes, lines of poetry, a smattering of history and lovely pictures of many of the more common butterflies with brief information about each. A real gem and perfect gift for any buterfly lover! ... Read more

Book Description

Some of the most beautiful and vivid shells in the world are found not on the beaches but in the trees of South Florida. This colorfully illustrated book offers for the first time a comprehensive survey of these rare snails and their shells, as well as their biology, natural history, evolution, and ecology.

Shells of the Liguus fasciatus tree snails display a stunning rainbow of colors, from pink, powder blue, and deep orange to chestnut and black, in patterns ranging from subtle to complex. Fifty-nine named color forms exist, and variations within the forms bring the total of distinct varieties to almost 80.

The author identifies all the various forms and their localities in this book. Color photographs of some 300 brilliantly hued shells illustrate the text. The migration and interbreeding of the Liguus fasciatus, including the many varieties that appear in only one defined habitat such as Matecumbe Key or Key Vaca, are described.

This remarkable compilation of all available information on these snails contains abundant reference material for scientists, but it is written in an informal style that will appeal to shell aficionados and amateur naturalists alike. Enthusiasts also will be interested to learn that the shells can be seen on walks through the forests of Everglades National Park and the hammocks of the Pinecrest area, and even from the road in several places in the Keys. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Floridas Lost Treasures
At last! Someone has opened the door, I never dreamed a book could make my heart skip a beat, make all my young memories from when I was growing up in Miami, come back so vividly. All the hours walking through heat,bugs,rain and swamps !!! Yas it was great. Only someone else who has joined in the comradery to such an adventure can relate to the hours of work it took to compile so much info on a subject which has been kept hidden from the laymen collectors. I collected Tree Snails back in the early sixties and seventies, I was privileged to meet and talk with some of the old time collectors, which sparked my appreciation of this unique shell. Thanks to Mr. Close for such a realistic and factual account of Florida Liguus. I was able to learn from this book even more, and it gave me a basis to educate my children to appreciate the special beauty of an indigenous species. I hope anyone who has an interest in this subject, will read this book and practice good conservation in protecting the special treasures of the Florida Everglades, for future generations to come!Sincerely,Arthur W. RieglePapaartr@aol.com ... Read more