The Complete Guide to Spiders and Their Relatives: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference for Beginners and Experts Alike

tj: Good intro to spiders for a novice

United States on Oct 04, 2023

brewbooksbrewbooks: I found an interesting spider up on Mount Rainier a few years ago. The pale blue egg sac caught my attention. I guessed it was in the wolf spider family, roaming around at 1800 meters (6000 feet). I snapped a few photos and continued on to botanize.A few months later, I added an observation on iNaturalist. I know this was a wolf spider (family Lycosidae) but not much more. After a few hours,someone suggested this spider was in genus Pardosa.

A few years later, confirmed the ID at the genus level and noted that in Western Washington, only this genus has blue egg sacs. I then asked Rod about how to get to a species level ID. I asked them to recommend a good beginner's book on spiders. They suggested Spiders and Their Kin by Levi et al. I ordered a copy of the book, and when it arrived, I noticed it was a Golden Guide, which I had thought of as a children's book. I was wrong! This book was a perfect introduction. It covers land arthropods other than insects, including spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, mites, centipedes, millipedes, and wood lice. The book starts with the classification, anatomy, and behavior of spiders and their kin.

The book's core is an illustrated...

United States on Apr 08, 2023

JPG: J'ai été positivement étonné de découvrir ce petit guide trouvé par hasard sur Amazon. Il est complet vu sa petite taille et les illustrations couleurs sont nombreuses et de bonne qualité

France on Oct 16, 2022

Gracious: A great little reference for creepy-crawlies.

Canada on Jun 30, 2018

Benjamin: very visual and informative.

Canada on Oct 01, 2014

P. Eisenman: I bought this book because I come across LOTS of spiders in my travels as I work. I was motivated to buy it when I came across a big red spider that looked like an engorged tick. But, as it was living in a web which I stuck my hand into by accident (YOW!) and it scared the bleepity-bleep out of me, I knew it was a spider. But what kind?

The Golden Guide to SPIDERS AND THEIR KIN is NOT a detailed guide to every species of spider on planet earth, but it does provide LOTS of information on each of the different families of spiders like ORB WEAVERS, FUNNEL-WEB SPIDERS, WOLF SPIDERS, JUMPING SPINDERS, COB-WEB SPIDERS, NURSERY WEB SPIDERS, CRAB SPIDERS, MYGALOMORPHS (Tarantulas) and many other smaller families. Also tells about uses for silk, spider "life", courtship, body parts and more. There's even a small section on how to COLLECT spiders and raise them in captivity. I'm pretty sure having a basement FULL of different kinds doesn't count as collecting OR captivity! ::::>) (that's an eight-eyed spider smile!).

Also sections on spider relatives like harvestmen (we call them Daddy Long-legs here!), scorpions, centipedes and millipedes and my favorites, the land...

United States on Jul 14, 2009