These Dorling Kindersley Handbook titles have been updated, and given a fresh new look. The series has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. They are the most visually appealing guides on the natural world in the book marketplace. Each title in the series contains over 500 full-color illustrations and crystal-clear photographs precisely annotated to make identification simple and accurate.
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
From Amazon
Dorling Kindersly publishing is known for their beautiful and informative books, covering a huge range of topics, including science and nature. This DK insect handbook's lush photos and thorough information make it an excellent beginning resource for the insectophile. While not comprehensive enough to replace an entomology handbook, and not specific enough to be a perfect field guide, Insects rests comfortably in the handbook territory. Its sturdy binding and quick reference features make it a natural to take along on family outings. Each page is lavished with full-color photo layouts showing close-up detail of major insect and arachnid groups, and the accompanying text provides basic information on life cycles, ranges, special habits and features, and trivia. The author, George C. McGavin, is a respected entomologist specializing in insect ecology. For quick identification of major bugs and arachnids, as well as tips on how to observe terrestrial arthropods in nature, this handbook can't be beat. --Therese Littleton
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Insects are the most numerous and successful creatures on Earth. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Insects are the most numerous and successful creatures on Earth. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book has a lot of useful information about insects. It describes basic characteristics, life cycle, and much more. It also includes info on other terrestrial arthropods, such as spiders and centipedes. As a field guide, it focuses on families of insects, not species, which makes more sense because there are so many species that are hard to identify. There are great photographs and descritions as well.
By Barbara
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I use this book all the time when I want info about a particular insect. What I like best are the photos, sometimes multiple photos of an insect to show all its parts.
Each insect has a brief description with just a bit of information. The Order, Family, and Total Number of Known Species is shown with each specimen. Many are shown from egg, larvae pupa and adult stages. I particularly enjoyed seeing magnified photos of pubic lice, fleas and body lice (great EWWWWW!!! factor :) There's a key of symbols on each page that show whether they are predacious, herbivorous, etc. Also covered is the insects' distribution. There's actually more info than at first appears, once you take a moment to learn what the tiny symbols mean. For instance symbols to indicate the main type of food.
There's sections on Arachnids, Crustaceans, Myriapods, the life cycle of insects, the sensory system, food and feeding and arthropod behaviour.
Of course to my mind, no insect book is perfect unless it has a picture of a luna moth, and this one does. I recommend this book highly a reference tool.
Each insect has a brief description with just a bit of information. The Order, Family, and Total Number of Known Species is shown with each specimen. Many are shown from egg, larvae pupa and adult stages. I particularly enjoyed seeing magnified photos of pubic lice, fleas and body lice (great EWWWWW!!! factor :) There's a key of symbols on each page that show whether they are predacious, herbivorous, etc. Also covered is the insects' distribution. There's actually more info than at first appears, once you take a moment to learn what the tiny symbols mean. For instance symbols to indicate the main type of food.
There's sections on Arachnids, Crustaceans, Myriapods, the life cycle of insects, the sensory system, food and feeding and arthropod behaviour.
Of course to my mind, no insect book is perfect unless it has a picture of a luna moth, and this one does. I recommend this book highly a reference tool.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
14 reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great overview of insects
Sep 1 2000
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book has a lot of useful information about insects. It describes basic characteristics, life cycle, and much more. It also includes info on other terrestrial arthropods, such as spiders and centipedes. As a field guide, it focuses on families of insects, not species, which makes more sense because there are so many species that are hard to identify. There are great photographs and descritions as well.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great guide--teach yourself to identify most insect families
Aug 31 2005
By S. C. Watson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is really a nicely done guide and almost fits in my coat pocket. The pictures are fabulous and the insects are divided up into their respective families with very clear identifying traits. I'm really impressed, so much easy-to-use information in such a small book. This would be a great precursor to an entomology class. Some of my favorite critters are in the Psuedoscorpion order and are the cheliferids and chernetids, both of which look like tiny ticks with claws. So very cool. I actually found one once in Washington state--in my kitchen! It was very, very tiny. I digress. A book like this is handy if you are always finding insects and wondering what the heck you are looking at. A good value!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed Feelings
Dec 31 2010
By Gloops
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Mixed feelings about this handbook. It gives an excellent introduction to an enormous subject, and provides a manageable overview using Linnaean taxonomy (family tree), within its 250 pages. Its illustrations are clear and detailed and in glorious colour. Many of the bugs are absolutely beautiful.
However, it recognises its own limitations by saying "... impossible to include [all 1500 families of terrestrial arthropods] in this book. We have chosen a broad range from around the world, including [those that] are particularly important, common or simply fascinating in some way".
As a result, if you really need something to identify the creatures in the area where you live, then this handbook won't get you very far. For example, the entire world's Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are dealt with in 20 pages and the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) in only 5. Compare this with, say, the 84 and 21 pages respectively (out of a total of 320) in Bob Gibbons' "Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe", which I found to be of much more practical use, simply because its scope is geographically far less ambitious. The Gibbons book won't help US readers, I know, but the comparison is likely to be true for any good quality LOCAL field guide.
The DK/Smithsonian production is attractive and eye-catching, and could very well spark a youngster's interest in the subject, but it is probably more suited to the coffee table than to the field and the garden.
However, it recognises its own limitations by saying "... impossible to include [all 1500 families of terrestrial arthropods] in this book. We have chosen a broad range from around the world, including [those that] are particularly important, common or simply fascinating in some way".
As a result, if you really need something to identify the creatures in the area where you live, then this handbook won't get you very far. For example, the entire world's Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are dealt with in 20 pages and the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) in only 5. Compare this with, say, the 84 and 21 pages respectively (out of a total of 320) in Bob Gibbons' "Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe", which I found to be of much more practical use, simply because its scope is geographically far less ambitious. The Gibbons book won't help US readers, I know, but the comparison is likely to be true for any good quality LOCAL field guide.
The DK/Smithsonian production is attractive and eye-catching, and could very well spark a youngster's interest in the subject, but it is probably more suited to the coffee table than to the field and the garden.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 14 reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Animals > Insects & Spiders
- Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Ecology
- Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Fauna > Insects & Spiders
- Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides > Insects & Spiders
- Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Reference
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
