Book

21april2010
Publisher: University of California Press, 2008
Arachnids

The arachnids bring up fierce emotional responses. Many people find big, hairy spiders, venomous scorpions and ticks terrifying. But to some these animals are fascinating.
The class of Arachnida does not consist of spiders alone. It also contains ten other orders: harvestmen, ticks and mites, wind spiders, tailless whip spiders, whip spiders, scorpions, palpigrades, pseudoscorpions, schizomids and ricinuleids. Nearly all have eight legs and two parts to their body.
This book discusses all these representatives of the spider family, and not just the real spiders (as most other books do). It contains information about their anatomy, their habitat and their behaviour. From garden spiders to deathstalker (one of the most venomous scorpions in the world) to mites that live in the lungs of monkeys, everything is discussed in this book. For instance, not many people may know that there are spiders that regurgitate food to feed their young.
The book is illustrated with beautiful photographs in colour and an extensive reference list.

The author Jan Beccaloni is the Curator of Arachnida and Myriapoda at the Natural History Museum, and she is the conservation officer for the British Arachnological Society.


Jan Beccaloni
Arachnids
Publisher: University of California Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 0520261402
ISBN-13: 978-0520261402