Amazing Arachnids

✍ Scribed by Jillian Cowles

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 329
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A richly illustrated and up-close look at the secret lives of spiders and other arachnids

The American Southwest is home to an extraordinary diversity of arachnids, from spitting spiders that squirt silk over their prey to scorpions that court one another with kissing and dancing. Amazing Arachnids presents these enigmatic creatures as you have never seen them before. Featuring a wealth of color photos of more than 300 different kinds of arachnids from eleven taxonomic orders--both rare and common species--this stunningly illustrated book reveals the secret lives of arachnids in breathtaking detail, including never-before-seen images of their underground behavior.

Amazing Arachnids covers all aspects of arachnid biology, such as anatomy, sociality, mimicry, camouflage, and venoms. You will meet bolas spiders that lure their victims with fake moth pheromones, fishing spiders that woo their mates with silk-wrapped gifts, chivalrous cellar spiders, tiny mites, and massive tarantulas, as well as many others. Along the way, you will learn why arachnids are living fossils in some respects and nimble opportunists in others, and how natural selection has perfected their sensory structures, defense mechanisms, reproductive strategies, and hunting methods.

Covers more than 300 different kinds of arachnids, including ones new to science
Features more than 750 stunning color photos
Describes every aspect of arachnid biology, from physiology to biogeography
Illustrates courtship and mating, birth, maternal care, hunting, and defense
Includes first-ever photos of the underground lives of schizomids and vinegaroons
Provides the first organized guide to macroscopic mites, including photos of living mites for easy reference

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Prologue
1. Introducing the Arachnids
2. Scorpions: Scorpiones
3. Pseudoscorpions: Pseudoscorpiones
4. Vinegaroons: Thelyphonida (Uropygi)
5. Short-Tailed Whipscorpions: Schizomida
6. Tailless Whipscorpions: Amblypygi
7. Microwhipscorpions: Palpigradi
8. Harvestmen: Opiliones
9. Wind Spiders: Solifugae
10. Ticks and Other Mites: Parasitiformes and Acariformes
11. Spiders: Araneae, the Eight-Legged Puzzle
12. Tarantulas, Trapdoor Spiders, and Their Kin: Mygalomorphs
13. Orb Weavers: Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, and Uloboridae
14. Irregular Web Builders: Theridiidae, Nesticidae, Leptonetidae, Diguetidae, Dictynidae, and Pholcidae
15. Crevice Weavers, Ground Weavers and Sheet Web Builders: Sicariidae, Filistatidae, Plectreuridae, Zoropsidae, Titanoecidae, Amaurobiidae, Oecobiidae, Linyphiidae, and Agelenidae
16. Jumping Spiders: Salticidae
17. Lynx Spiders: Oxyopidae
18. Crab Spiders: Thomisidae, Sparassidae, Philodromidae, Selenopidae, and Zoropsidae
19. Sand Spiders and Wolf Spiders: Homalonychidae and Lycosidae
20. Ghosts, Goblins, Pirates, and Other Wandering Hunters: Mimetidae, Corrinidae, Trachelidae, Gnaphosidae, Caponiidae, Dysderidae, Oonopidae, Anyphaenidae, Miturgidae, Eutichuridae, and Liocranidae
21. Fishing Spiders: Pisauridae and Trechaleidae
22. Spitting Spiders: Scytodidae
23. In the Company of Arachnids
Acknowledgments
References
Index of Common and Scientific Names