Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America (Kaufman Field Guides)
by Kenn Kaufman
from Houghton Mifflin
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 R. 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
2,350 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.
The Songs of Insects
by Lang Elliott
from Houghton Mifflin
The Songs of Insects is a celebration of the chirps, trills, and scrapes of seventy-seven common species of crickets, katydids, locusts, and cicadas native to eastern and central North America. The photographs in this book will surprise and delight all who behold them. Many of the insects' colors are brilliant and jewellike, and they are displayed beautifully here. This book and accompanying CD provide a unique doorway to enjoyment of the insect concerts and solos that dominate our natural soundscape during the summer and autumn. The text includes information on the natural history of insects, identification tips, and an appreciation of insect song. A seventy-minute audio CD features high-quality recordings of the songs of all species, track-keyed to the information presented in the text.
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies (National Audubon Society Field Guides)
by NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY
from Knopf
Butterflies are among the natural world's most colorful and intriguing creatures, so what could be more useful than a handy field guide with more than 1,000 photographs of all the butterflies of North America north of Mexico, including all true butterflies, the most common skippers, and many migrants and strays. The color plates are visually arranged by shape and color, and thumb-tab silhouettes provide a convenient index to identification of butterflies in the field. The species account for each butterfly provides measurements, descriptions of each stage of the life cycle, and information on coloring or distinguishing markings, flight period, habitat, and range.
Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War
by Jeffrey A Lockwood
from Oxford University Press, USA
The emir of Bukhara used assassin bugs to eat away the flesh of his prisoners. General Ishii Shiro during World War II released hundreds of millions of infected insects across China, ultimately causing more deaths than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. These are just two of many startling examples found in Six-legged Soldiers, a brilliant portrait of the many weirdly creative, truly frightening, and ultimately powerful ways in which insects have been used as weapons of war, terror, and torture.
Beginning in prehistoric times and building toward a near and disturbing future, the reader is taken on a journey of innovation and depravity. Award-winning science writer Jeffrey A. Lockwood begins with the development of "bee bombs" in the ancient world and explores the role of insect-borne disease in changing the course of major battles, ranging from Napoleon's military campaigns to the trenches of World War I. He explores the horrific programs of insect warfare during World War II: airplanes dropping plague-infested fleas, facilities rearing tens of millions of hungry beetles to destroy crops, and prison camps staffed by doctors testing disease-carrying lice on inmates. The Cold War saw secret government operations involving the mass release of specially developed strains of mosquitoes on an unsuspecting American public--along with the alleged use of disease-carrying and crop-eating pests against North Korea and Cuba. Lockwood reveals how easy it would be to use of insects in warfare and terrorism today: In 1989, domestic ecoterrorists extorted government officials and wreaked economic and political havoc by threatening to release the notorious Medfly into California's crops.
A remarkable story of human ingenuity--and brutality--Six-Legged Soldiers is the first comprehensive look at the use of insects as weapons of war, from ancient times to the present day.
Spiders and Their Kin (A Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press)
by Herbert W. Levi
from Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press
The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean (P.S.)
by Trevor Corson
from Harper Perennial
In this intimate portrait of an island lobstering community and an eccentric band of renegade biologists, journalist Trevor Corson escorts the reader onto the slippery decks of fishing boats, through danger-filled scuba dives, and deep into the churning currents of the Gulf of Maine to learn about the secret undersea lives of lobsters.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashells (National Audubon Society Field Guides)
by NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY
from Knopf
The essential book for beach-combers and divers, this guide explores more than 705 seashells, living mollusks, abalone, periwinkles, conchs, limpets, oysters, clams, mussels, and cockles found on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts of North America and the West Indies. The photographs are arranged by shape and color, making identification quick and easy.
The Ants
by Bert Hölldobler
from Belknap Press
This is the definitive scientific study of one of the most diverse animal groups on earth; pretty well everything that is known about ants is in this massive work. But books do not win Pulitzer Prizes, as this one did in 1991, for exhaustiveness; besides being the last word in science, this work is beautifully written, and accessible to the lay reader. Wilson, of Harvard, and Holldobler of the University of Wurzburg, may inspire a whole new generation of budding entomologists. Every branch of biology is covered, from evolution to taxonomy to physiology to ecology. Lavishly illustrated, it is full of amazing facts, many concerning the incredible social behavior of these creatures.
From the Arctic to South Africa - one finds them everywhere: Ants. Making up nearly 15% of the entire terrestrial animal biomass, ants are impressive not only in quantitative terms, they also fascinate by their highly organized and complex social system. Their caste system, the division of labor, the origin of altruistic behavior and the complex forms of chemical communication makes them the most interesting group of social organisms and the main subject for sociobiologists. Not least is their ecological importance: Ants are the premier soil turners, channelers of energy and dominatrices of the insect fauna.
Butterflies of North America (Kaufman Field Guides)
by Jim P. Brock
from Houghton Mifflin
The most user-friendly butterfly guide ever published, still handy and compact, now updated with the very latest information
- Follows the latest classification, recognizing more than forty additional species
- Includes four new color plates of Mexican-border rarities
- More than 2,300 images of butterflies in natural poses
- Pictorial table of contents
- Convenient one-page index
- Range maps on text pages
Florida's Fabulous Seashells: And Other Seashore Life
by Winston Williams
from World Publications (CA)
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