Book Description

This essential handbook covers where to find butterflies; how to observe and photograph them; their behavior, biology, ecology, and life histories; butterfly gardening; butterfly rearing; identification; and conservation. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Perfect for the average house - entertaining & comprehensive
This book is perfect for Texas homeowners who want to identify, learn about and control bugs. The writing is entertaining and an amazing number of bugs are included. Loads of pictures.

VERY informative and funny too!
"Critters" is a delightful book and an invaluable resourse for gardeners, homeowners and anyone likely to come in contact with insects. It is beautifully illustrated, informative and a really good read, to boot! ... Read more

Book Description

Many insects are difficult even for the experts to identify. In the
new Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, readers
will find a wealth of information on the amazing observable behaviors of
insects and their fascinating life histories. Naturalists Kenn Kaufman
and Eric Eaton use a broad ecological approach rather than overly technical
terms, making the book accessible and understandable for everyone.
The lively and engaging text emphasizes the insects that are most
likely to catch our attention but includes information on all groups that
can be recognized. The guide is lavishly illustrated, with more than
2,000 digitally enhanced photographs representing every major group
of insects found in North America north of Mexico. Comprehensive yet
compact, authoritative yet easy to understand, this is the perfect guide
for anyone who wants to know more about the fascinating and diverse
insects of North America. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

What is that poking through the screen?
The biggest flaw of this book should be mentioned right away: it has no color illustrations except on the cover. There are rather small black-and-white drawings and descriptions of an insect's range of colors, but for an interested amateur like me ninety percent of a bug's identification is its color.

On the other hand, the author quickly taught me how to tell the difference between a damselfly and a dragonfly (size and the way they hold their wings at rest). I also learned that most of the moths banging against the screens at night are cutworm moths. I'm probably doing the local farmers a favor by luring them to my window.

The book is stuffed with interesting facts but because of its size (324 pages) it must necessarily go lightly over the ground for each family of insects. For instance ants (Family Formicidae) are disposed of in two pages, and I'm still without a clue as to the species of tiny red ants that seem to sneak into the house around the window frames.

"Insects of the Great Lakes Region" is divided into five chapters, plus glossary, appendices, bibliography, and a heavily Latin, sometimes confusing index. Antlions are listed by their English name, but not ants. Fireflies are listed as lightningbugs in the index, but as 'Firefly Beetles' in the header to the text.

Chapter 1 is a 'geological and biological history of the Great Lakes Region.' Chapter 2 covers this region's entomological history, and Chapter 3, the distributional patterns of its insects.

Perhaps to make up for this book's lack of color, Chapter 4 teaches the principles of insect classification. Look for distinctive shapes such as a thrip's fringed wings, or unique body appendages such as pincers. Does the insect sting you or chew holes in your clothes? Does it reach through the screen with its nasty little proboscis and try to suck your blood?

Chapter 5, "Insect Fauna of the Great Lakes Region" comprises the major portion of the book. This is where the reader can browse through some fascinating natural histories. Although the tenor of this review might seem anti-insect, there are some wondrous six-legged Arthropoda in this region--even a species of mosquito that spends its larval stage in the bog pitcher, and somehow manages to avoid being digested by this unique, carnivorous plant.

The appendices guide the reader to entomological organizations, periodicals, insect collections, collecting regulations, as well as indicating which insects are endangered or threatened. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Will not be missed
Lots of pretty photographs, but that's about it.Practically useless as a field guide.

The species are grouped by zoogeographic regions, meaning all of the moths and butterflies of North America are lumped together in the Nearctic region.Within each reagion, species are arranged -- get this -- alphabetically!The result is that the first species listed is Actias luna, the luna moth; the second species is Aglais milberti, Milbert's tortoise-shell butterfly; the third is Alypia octomaculata, the eight-spotted forester; and so on.In other words, no attempt is made to group families or even orders together.Moths, butterflies, skippers are all mixed together indiscriminately.The young naturalist is thus deprived of the joy of natural classification that makes the study of these insects so fascinating.

Furthermore, many common names are inexplicably missing.The above-mentioned Milbert's tortoise-shell, for example, is identified only by its scientific name.Danaus plexippus is identified as the Monarch, but the Monarch's famous mimic, the Viceroy, is identified only as Basilarchia archippus.Habitats, date ranges and larval food plants are not reliably given.Over-all, a very poor performance.

Mercifully, this book is out of print now.I'm entering this review on the chance that someone might pick up a copy somewhere and get discouraged.Don't get discouraged.Throw this book into the rubbish and go buy a nice Peterson field guide. ... Read more

Amazon.com

God, the English biologist J.B.S. Haldane once observed, has an inordinate fondness for beetles--and, for that matter, for all the other little bugs and insects that abound on the earth. Sue Hubbell, a beekeeper-turned-essayist, shares that fondness, and after reading her notes on camel crickets, gypsy moths, and water striders, among other creatures, you will as well. Hubbell's appreciation extends even to bugs that we find noxious ("Silverfish," she writes, "are gregarious, sociable animals, liking their own company so much that they often eat one another"), although she admits to harboring a few favorites among the innumerable insect orders, notably bees, of course, and daddy longlegs spiders, whose "otherness" she rightly prizes. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (7)

More research
I love studying insects and Ms. Hubbell's book makes a pretty interesting addition to my collection.Her research on the lady beetles and black flies are nothing to complain about.However, recent studies have concluded that Darwin's pepper moth research is flawed, and in Ms. Hubbell's own words "For years biologists taught their students that the viceroy butterfly,...was a prime example of an edible Bastian mimic. ...and all the lecture notes and guidebooks will have to be rewitten."Maybe she needs to rewrite her own notes? Other than the lock-step Darwinianism, Ms. Hubbell make a compelling argument for the closer study of insects from the custest to the most annoying.A very good read from someone who obviously adores her subject and makes it interesting for the layman (latin names and all!).

Great essays
This is a neat book.Hubell takes a look at a number of insects that we're all familiar with (butterflies, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, silverfish, katydids, dragonflies, crickets, and more) and has a short essay on each, taking us past just the basics that field guides provide to understand and appreciate more about the lives and behaviors of these animal.There are also neat little fun facts like history of the names, european stories of the insects, etc.Her writing style is easy to read yet there is a balance between technical/biological facts and fun easy anecdotes/stories.Its all woven together so its not like you're reading a text book but you're stil learning a lot.There are lovely drawings sprinkled in throughout the book.Overall I really enjoyed the book and have gained some neat new knowledge that otherwise I would not have encountered.Here's a quick tidbit: for the eastern katydid - the latin name translates as "That being which has wings like a camellia leaf."Neat - makes me look a little differently at the katydid too.I loved this book - highly recommeded for any nature lover.

excellent popular book on insects and other arthropods
Hubbell is clearly pasionate about insects and their relatives, and that passion shows in this outstanding book on invertebrates. Combining personal experience with solid entomological fact, Hubbell presents to the average reader fascinating glimpses of a number of invertebrate groups, such as water striders, dragonflies, daddy longlegs, and butterflies. Hubbell shows the life stories of these groups, the role they play in nature, and the people whose lives they affect. Whether beautiful or hideous, valuable or a pest, Hubbell shows them all to be fascinating creatures. Despite that many of them are quite common, some such as black flies too common, the authors show that mysteries still exist with these creatures, how sometimes relatively basic aspects of their lives and roles in nature are mysteries.

This book is very readable and while not too technical is filled with lots of interesting and accurate facts and a wealth of personal experience on the part of the author. If you ever wanted to know more about the butterflies in your garden, the dragonflies wizzing by you over the local lake or pond, or that daddy longlegs in the attic or toolshed, this is the book for you.

A Great Appreciation for Life in its Many Forms
As a young boy I was an avid collector of insects. No specialty - six legs were the only requirement. By about age ten I had exhausted the children's section of the central library and was given the rare honor to check out books from the adult section. Thick books with small print and detailed drawings of insects in their varied life stages. After recently reading Sue Hubbell's book, I wondered why I had wandered away from my early passion.

She describes chapter by chapter the fascinating life that we call bugs. Hubbell begins with Order Lepidoptera, the butterflies, among the more acceptable insects. Other chapters explore midges and gnats, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, bravo (killer) bees, water striders, silverfish, dragonflies and damselflies, gypsy moths, syrphid flies, and camel crickets. The detailed ink drawings scattered throughout the text are quite good.

Reading Broadsides is great fun. Hubbell is intelligent and has a great appreciation for life in its many forms. She introduces us to entomologists (a fascinating life form in themselves) and we share their enthusiasm for their particular study. We take part in a butterfly census in the Rockies, search for ladybug aggregations in the Sierra foothills, track katydids in the Midwest with sophisticated audio electronics, and closely observe an aging daddy longlegs. We discover how University of Kansas acquired a remarkable collection of water striders from a private collector. We learn that classifying insects is not a simple matter; insect evolution has been amazingly complicated, leading to unending debate regarding proper taxonomy. Obviously biodiversity is out of control.

More importantly, Hubbell helps us see the world through the eyes (sometimes many eyes) of individual insect species. I was fascinated by the complex and exhausting mating dance of silverfish. She may have even created a new genre: insect eroticism. (I look at silverfish differently today - but I still chase them away from my books.) Somehow Hubbell even manages to present biting black flies with some sympathy and understanding. Her personal observations - as when stooping over small puddles in early spring to admire the graceful performance of water striders - reveal a world that so often we ignore in our hurry and concern with bigger things.

This is a relaxing book to read. Each chapter largely stands alone and could be read in any sequence, but nonetheless the chapters combine to tell a fascinating story. I highly recommend Broadsides.

Makes insects almost kissable
The bugs are: butterflies, midges and gnats, ladybugs, daddy longlegs, black flies, bravo bees, water striders, silverfish, katydids, dragonflies,gypsy moths, syrphid flies, and camel crickets.The writing is lively andreadable, familiar and even warm.This lady can cuddle with insects!Thechapter on ladybugs and how they are captured to be sold to gardeners isparticularly interesting.However the overall content of the book is alittle less than I was hoping for.In particular I could have used moreinformation on the habits of silverfish.

What I hope Hubbell focuses onin her next book is urban insects.I would especially appreciate a popularand detailed account of the lives of Argentine ants since they are the onesthat plague us during the hot days of summer in southern California-or offlour beetles and book beetles and what have you.And it would be nice toread a book that identified the myriad of insects that live in and aroundcontracts with entomologically-based companies that forbid them to disclosetheir knowledge of insect behavior for fear of giving away potentiallyvaluable secrets?! ... Read more

Amazon.com

"Wherever you are, there is a spider within a meter of you."So begins this engaging introduction to the spider, the dominant terrestrial carnivore on the planet. Photographed up close, the spiders in this slender text display an otherworldly beauty. But it's the text that makes this book shine. Even veteran arachnophobes will be charmed by author Adrienne Mason's lively writing about the diversity of spiders and her delight in the strange details of their eating habits and sex lives.

Mason, a naturalist and author of several children's books, writes clearly about the often bizarre anatomy and habits of spiders. She doesn't shy away from scientific terms and provides a useful guide to common spider families in an appendix, which includes graceful line drawings illustrating the distinctive features of each family. The four chapters cover the basics: spider diversity and ecology, sex and reproduction, predation, and spider lore. A sampling of Mason's eye for telling details: more than 2 million spiders live in a single acre of grassy meadow; those spiders consume nearly 50,000 pounds of prey per acre in a single year; the whirling Italian dance known as the tarantella was thought to cure illness caused by tarantula bites.

The World of the Spider provides a revealing glimpse at the striking diversity and biology of this feared and misunderstood group. After reading this book, you'll appreciate spiders and their importance, even if you still shriek when you find one in the tub. More adventurous readers who want to identify spiders in the field should consult other works, including the useful and inexpensive identification guide by Levi and Levi, Spiders and Their Kin. --Pete Holloran ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Joy of gardening
I thought this book was like an encylapidia to gardening, it had so much helpful information, and was so easy to understand and use. If you are a first or pro gardener this book will fasinate you, and give you intresting garning ideas. This book is a must have. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Fantastic! Well worth hunting down!
I had to look for awhile and put an Amazon search out to find this one used and I'm SO glad I did. This book was recommended to me by a locat naturalist who has been photographing and cataloging moths for many years. His copy is well worn with wonderful notes in the margins (oh if only I could have found such an edition!) I finally found this one and must say I'm starting to make my own annotations in the margins. Moths are pretty tricky to id - there are just so many different species. This book has been wonderful for me though - there are many color plates and the images are pretty clear. Arrows are drawn to specific areas where you should look to help distinguish between this and that species. The text is great too - helps in narrowing down which species it is if you know it either definitely does/does not occur in your area. Food sources are provided too which helps to solve the mystery. Similar species are indicated so you can see what you might be confusing the species with. Fantastic book - so glad I found it!!

What kind of moth is that?
Dr. Covell has done a marvelous job with this field guide. His wonderful descriptions and pictures of moths make it easy for the average Joe to identify moths. ... Read more

Amazon.com

That Gunk on Your Car is a seriously funny book filled with fascinating informationabout common insects, especially the ones you are most likely to find splattered on your windshield. Chapters areorganized around the individual insects--ants, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, butterflies, crickets, midges--and include information on the natural history and life cycles of each and fun things you can do with the insects.That Gunk on Your Car would be an excellentparent/child participatory book: the lively text is easy to read andscientifically accurate. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A cool book
Dr Hostetler was my biology professor and he told us all he was going to be on the Tonight Show to promote his book...I thought he was joking, but he wasn't! Anyway, I was curious about his book so I got it and read it and it was quite interesting and fun to read. I'm not saying that because he was my instructor. In fact, I didn't do very well in the class...

Great Purchase!
This is a fun book that is great for kids and adults alike. The author does a great job relating information in a fun way, with all kinds of activities suggested. Even better, the illustrations in the book are unbelievable. A must read!

A book to share with others
It took a while to convince our librarian to buy the book for the collection, but once the book arrived it made the rounds through the staff members before reaching the public shelves. Also, I gave it as a birthday gift to a friend who just bought a motorcycle.

The book is quite a novelty. For someone who enjoys animal behavior, this was an unusual way to learn. For children, not only are the "ewh, gross" splat plates interesting, but Hostetler has included some activites and games to keep them busy. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Don't bother!
As a critic once said of humorist/musician Tom Lehrer, "...plays piano acceptably." So Mr. Longgood, who teaches writing, writes acceptably, at least stylistically. And he does betray some knowledge of bees and beekeeping, although his unreasoned anthropomorphising of them quite gets in the way of any real understanding, either on his part or that of his readers.

Anyone who would like to understand bees, from either a practical or spiritual standpoint would do far better to read Dr. Richard Taylor's "The Joys of Beekeeping". Leave this dog to those misanthropes, sadly numerous, who must constantly apologize for their own existance.

Long Live The Queen
A warm-hearted and touching look into the life of bees. Through the eyes of the author, the personality, social culture and care of bees are explored with love and wit. While scientifically sound, this book reads more like a novel than a text book. I highly recommend this book. Thoroughly enjoyable.

delightful read
Without being highly educated in scientific terms or history, this book was a wonderful and enertaining read. I have always been fascinated by insects, especially bees and ants, and this book fulfilled every question I had on bees. Longgood has written it so well that it is like reading a novel rather than nonfiction. This book makes one want to go out in the hills and study the nearest colony of insects all day long.

THIS BOOK MAKES A BEELOVER OUT OF EVERYONE.
MR LONGGOOD HAS TAKEN THE SEEMINGLY MUNDANE CHORES OF LIFE WITHIN THE BEE HIVE AND GIVEN THEM A PERSPECTIVE THAT EVEN THE THE MOST STAUNCH INSECT HATER WILL FIND FACINATING. THIS BOOK BRINGS YOU TO A LEVEL OF FASCINATION WITH LITTLE CREATURES WHICH WILL FOSTER AN APPRECIATION FOR BEES THAT YOU NEVER COULD HAVE IMAGAGINED.

As fascinating and sweet as the bees and their honey.
A splendid first-person account of discovering beekeeping and other beautiful secrets of the natural world. Longgood speculates and dreams as effectively as he observes and deduces. Great reading for anyone who loves the natural world and the processes we so often neglect. ... Read more

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Great Book Explaining the "Killer Bee" phenomenon
This book ranks as one of the best books I have read on the subject of Africanized Honey Bees. (aka Killer Bees) This book is easily understood by the layperson, yet full of great data for the serious student of this exotic pest. From Texas to California, we have to learn how to live with this creature - it is not going away! I strongly recommend this book. While I have been teaching classes on the subject of Africanized Honey Bees for the better part of a decade, I still keep this book handy as a reference, and recommend it to my students. ... Read more

Book Description

Why should scientists have all the fun? wonders entomologist James K. Wangberg, as he muses over the weird and interesting sexual behaviors of insects. In Six-Legged Sex: The Erotic Lives of Bugs, readers will find a rollicking, readable (and scientifically accurate) series of portraits of bugs in their most intimate moments. In fact, this book may deserve an "R" rating, or at least "PG-13," because it does contain adult language, sexual content, nudity, and violence. But none of it is gratuitous, and all of it is fun and informative. ... Read more

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Packed with intriguing (and often surprising) information
Fans of insects and those who would learn more about their sex lives will find James Wangberg's Six-Legged Sex to be packed with intriguing (and often surprising) information about insect sex. From sex hang-outs and influences on mating habits and strategies to insect peculiarities per species, Six-Legged Sex is highly recommended for school and community library collections. ... Read more

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A simple, basic guide for the lay reader with bug problems
The Bugman On Bugs: Understanding Household Pests And The Environment presents the practical wisdom of a board certified entomologist concerning dealing with common pests such as cockroaches, ants, flies, spiders, fleas, bed bugs, termites, and more. A simple, basic guide for the lay reader with bug problems, The Bugman On Bugs does not go into excessive detail but simply offers solid advice, including tips when a bug problem can be dealt with on one's own and when one should call a professional. Also highly recommend is the previous volume in this series, "Ask the Bugman." ... Read more