Customer Reviews

Biology of Spiders

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the few factorial books I have ever been able to read without dropping off after a couple of pages. A really great book eases you gently into the web of facts without getting snared (sorry!). If you love spiders this is your book, if you don't you may change your mind or at least gain a huge amount of admiration for the little beasties! Wonderfully written with clear diagrams and great photos I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

This review covers concisely a half-century of research in spider anatomy, development, behavior, and the complete biological profile. It contains a great number of photographs, drawings, and electron micrographs, illustrating precisely what is known about spiders at the publication date of 1996. There is not another reference that comes close to summarizing this knowledge in one place.

I came to this book after reading every spider field guide, "popular science" title and Internet site I could find, all of which I also found wanting. Foelix's book has all the information I wanted, presented with the calm majesty that only the very best professors can manage. It's truly a college course in itself, always challenging and never condescending.

About the only complaint I have with this book is that the author doesn't clearly identify the intended audience. I'll do that for him: if you love spiders you absolutely must have this book. This provides an excellent survey of virtually everything about the biology of spiders. The detail is stupendous, especially the microphotographs of various parts of spider anatomy.

This book is probably most appropriate as a text for an upper level college course, but any budding arachnologist should read it. Anyone who loves spiders as I do will love this book.

I have enjoyed using this book because of the detailed graphs and labeled pictures inside. The information that is given makes spider biology a little easier to grasp. Information is layed out neatly for the beginner so that you build foundations for learning about all the parts that make up a spider. However, some of the terminology was not suitable for a beginner and I had to look some of it up elsewhere to understand what the book was showing me. I recommend this book to anyone interested in this subject.

This is a super book on spiders. Its technical but still understandable. I don't have a science background so I was hoping it wouldn't be too tough to read and its not. It has pictures and it goes through everything you'd like to know about spiders from how they weave webs to how the webs are structured to how they reproduce etc etc. I was interested because I see all these beautiful webs in my gardens and I wanted to learn more about spiders. This gave me justt the depth I was looking for without expecting me to have a pHd in the subject. I really liked this book

There are a variety of popular books on the biology of spiders but this seems to be the only recent one in English at the professional level except for Barth's `A Spider's World' (2001),likewise dated and quite expensive. Foelix's 330 pages are packed with details on every aspect of spider life. As a former physiologist I found it fascinating, and, though it has much of interest for any intelligent person, the general reader will be less than enthralled by details of digestive, circulatory and reproductive and nervous systems.

It is well illustrated with many drawings, photos and tables.

This is an excellent translation from the 1992 German edition but 16 years have passed so the enormous recent progress in genetics and molecular biology, RFID tagging and computer analysis is missing. In contrast to what the nonspecialist might think, they are an extraordinarily diverse group in their genetics, physiology, anatomy and behavior. I expect that when the genetics have been worked out, there will be a gulf between the 40,000 or so species at least as vast as that between sharks and gorillas.

There is no reference to the `web' which you can easily remedy eg, at www.arachnology.be/Arachnology.html and its links. The very old book by the famous naturalist Fabre is still in print and is even available online at http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/howandwhy/TheLifeoftheSpider

There are some more recent excellent books in foreign languages such as Vanuytven's `Spinnen' in Dutch but so far as I know, none has been translated. An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia(2000) is superb but out of print.

This book is worthy of being considered a text book for serious students of spiders but it is easily readable for the average person. It absolutely tells you everything you could want to know about the life of these creatures. Excellent diagrams of each subject matter. I recommend it highly for the detailed information you need to have. While it did have pictures of various spiders, I was disappointed it did not have pictures of specific spiders so that you might be able to identify ones you find. It is a little pricey and complex so it isn't for casual interest.

The third edition of this book (cover illustrated) is available from Oxford University Press. I don't know why, but this listing points to older versions (second edition) of this title, which are entirely different. The third edition (available 12/31/2010) has been redone and brought up to date with about 500 new references. Make sure that you don't order one of the old editions. Be careful when you order! Amazon has confused the various editions of this book, and they are very different, and should be listed separately. Also, comments pertaining to the second edition are mixed with images of the third edition. The Kindle offering has an old publication date listed, and may not be the third edition shown in the picture. The third edition has much new content, and about 100 more pages than the second edition. It is the best version of a very good introduction for people with a serious interest in biology of spiders.

If you are looking for a book on the biology of spiders (one would think that the name would give it away), this is the definitive one. The new edition has updated the systematics of modern spiders, and Foelix ceased using "poison" and "poisonous" in place of "venom" and "venomous" (there are no poisonous spiders-eat all you want!), but he still uses words before they are defined and/or uses them to define another word in a circular manner. However, if you want to know a bit about spiders, probably the reason that you are curious about this book, then you can see past those little idiosyncrasies. If you are looking for a field guide, look elsewhere. But if you are wanting to know how that little lady on the big web in your garden ticks, then look no further.