Paperback | June 2017 | $ 49.95
ISBN: 9780643107076 | 464 pages | 215 x 148 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Colour photographs – See more at: https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/6899/

With its clear, comprehensive, beautiful images and sensible layout, this is a great book for the amateur arachnophile. To begin with there is a series of introductory sections covering topics such as taxonomy, the parts of spider anatomy, behaviour, arachnophobia (a learnt behaviour), why there are so many spiders unknown or undescribed and how many spiders there might in Australia. There are also sections on webs, burrows, eyes, spinnerets, etc., all of which help identify a spider to at least a family level.
And who wouldn’t smile at the picture of the Desert Orb-weaver called Backobourkia collina, part of a genus named for its tendency to be found in the far outback (as in ‘out the back of Bourke’)? Or the Alien Butt Spider (Araneus praesignis) from Queensland whose abdomen is marked with two large black, backwards-facing blobs that look like eyes—likely to make it seem larger and more fearsome to predators?
The whole latter part of the book covers ‘Spider families from A to Z’ and is divided into the Araneomorphae and Mygalomorphae groups of families. Each family is clearly introduced and there are occasional special interest pages such as Is it an ant? Or is it an ant-mimicking Jumping Spider? Some of the images occupy a whole page, which really brings these tiny creatures to life. Right at the back of the book is a spider ‘family tree’, giving a simplified view of how each spider family relates to others.
Overall I think readers will find this book both fascinating and useful. It might even spark some interest in your non-spider-loving family members!

Tanya Marwood