The Common Spiders of the United States [Paperback]

James Henry Emerton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1961

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 227 pages
• Publisher: Dover Pubns (June 1961)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486202232
• ISBN-13: 978-0486202235
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,811,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides > Insects & Spiders

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Common Spiders of the U.S., May 13, 2000

By 

"nuggithed" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Common Spiders of the United States (Paperback)

This is a fairly decent reference guide for the more scientific minded reader. The book is full of detailed sketches of spiders, their pieces and their parts.The book falls short, however, in its lack of color photos and its propensity for being altogether too technical. Most people only know spiders by their common names (ie. Black widow- Latrodectus Mactans), so figuring out what your looking at may be difficult while using this book. Saying that, I would recommend the text for spider enthusiasts.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Common Spiders of the United States, April 2, 2002

By 

Rod Crawford (Seattle, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Common Spiders of the United States (Paperback)

This was a great book in 1902 - the first popular spider guide by someone who knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately, the publishers who reprinted the book never updated its contents. Dover editions contain exactly one page of new material - a "key to families" by an insect specialist (spiders are not insects) which is guaranteed to lead beginners wrong. Now, 100 years after Emerton wrote, essentially every spider species he discussed is known by a different name. The natural-history information, while largely correct, is also 100 years out of date. An arachnologist who already knows the current names of Emerton's spiders can still make use of his excellent drawings and photos, but an interested layperson will only be misled, and would be better off with something more current, such as Levi's "Spiders and their Kin." Incidentally, the reason there are no common names in the book is that 95% of spiders have none!