Product Description
You asked for it!. More fun . . . More science . . . More variety . . . Where can you find a seven-inch caterpillar? Which plants do grasshoppers like to eat most? What beetles produce tiny explosions to protect themselves? Why are slugs so slimy? You'll find the answers to these and loads of other questions in this creepy, crawly, and wonderfully interactive follow-up to the perennial kids' favorite Pet Bugs. Small, intriguing to watch, and easy to take care of, bugs make terrific pets! More Pet Bugs introduces an all-new batch of these fascinating creatures, from ants, earwigs, and earthworms to tiger beetles, tobacco hornworms, and hickory horned devils. You'll learn what each bug looks like, where to find it, how to catch it, and how to care for it. Featuring safety tips and tons of information about why insects behave the way they do, More Pet Bugs promises hours of excitement through independent learning and hands-on investigation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great book for anyone who likes nature and pets
I found this book very interesting and helpful.It told how to catch and keep insects and non-insects(like slugs and worms).It also told about the creature and it's behavior, as well as where it is found.
For anyone even a little interested in bugs as more than "yucky", this book is for them.

Bugs and MORE bugs !
If you had read "Pet Bugs: A Kid's Guide to Catching and Keeping Touchable Insects", you would notice how interesting, informative and how organised each chapter is. For those of you who read the first book and was hoping there was another, here it is ! "More Pet Bugs : A Kid's Guide to Catching and Keeping Insects and Other Small Creatures" introduces even more strange and slimy creatures that you can keep !

The chapters in the book, like the first, are divided by the characteristics of the bug. For example in the " bugs that live in water" section, you will learn how to keep bugs that live in water.

Apart from teaching you how to keep the critters, the book also teaches you where to find and how to catch these slimy bugs. And if that isn't enough, there's also easy to understand facts about the bug's behaviour !

With over 20 new bugs, from ants to aquatic planarians to crayfish,this book will amuse and inform people of all ages.

Fans of these two books "Pet Bugs: A Kid's Guide to Catching and Keeping Touchable Insects" and "More Pet Bugs : A Kid's Guide to Catching and Keeping Insects and Other Small Creatures" can only hope that Sally Kneidel would write a third book to accompany these two. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (18)

Black & White
I loved this Book!I first saw it at the library and checked it out.But when I got it home and started looking at it, I knew I had to have it for my library.Great graphic drawings of animals in different poses.

Wide variety of animal images
I believe this is the largest selection of animal prints that Dover has to offer. It has a wide variety of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, shellfish, insects, etc., but because they are old etchings, the conformation, proportions, and other characteristics are not always accurate. The illustration details are amazing. Most images have some type of reference as tobreed, gender, type, etc. This book is great for design/advertising (limited in copyright free), any art projects, or use as models for sketching practice as long as you are aware of the artistic liberties taken on some portrayals of animals.

Ink Drawing Animals
This book is perfect if you are interested in Ink Art. I have not seen a book that had so many ink drawings and so fine in detail. It's a must for anyone that loves art or is an artist. The price is ridiculously too low, this book is a bargain no doubt about that. Buy it worth it worth it and you wont regret it. There are some many animals from land, air, and water. The way these artist make everything look so realistic is amazing.

Animals: 1,419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc.
This book has the most awesome animal drawings I have ever seen. The fact that they are wood engravings is more than remarkable!

awesome book
A present for my daughter-in-law and the illustrations were incredible.She is an artist and will make good use of this book. ... Read more

Product Description
In a sophisticated display of allegory, fantasy, and philosophical inquiry, Victor Pelevin creates an Ovidian, shape-shifting world that never fails to resonate on various strata with our own.

The Life of Insects opens with a trio of investors--two Russians and one American--discussing business prospects in the Crimea, when, suddenly, they reveal themselves to be mosquitoes in search of hemoglobin and glucose. Other figures morph from human to insect (and back again) in this thoroughly disorienting yet strangely familiar Kafkaesque novel. Both a parody of traditional Russian prose and a savage commentary of post-Soviet culture, The Life of Insects is a triumphant act of storytelling that succeeds in making "insect aspirations and anxiety feel so fragile and so soberingly universal" (The New York Times Book Review).Amazon.com Review
Victor Pelevin has the sort of unbridled comedic imagination that can makemost writers seem insipid by comparison. Born in 1962, the Russian writerhas already published three story collections as well as a splendidly funnytake on the Soviet space program, Omon Ra. From time to timehis effects lurch out of control, yet Pelevin's manic level of inventiontends to carry us along until he regains his equipoise. Certainly this isthe case with The Life of Insects. This time, Pelevin sets his storyin a sleazy Crimean resort town, where his characters eat, drink, makemerry, make love... and turn into insects. This is no soft-focus allegory:the author is superbly specific about his entomological creations. "Arthurand Arnold had turned into small mosquitoes," he writes, "of that miserablehue of gray familiar from prerevolutionary village huts, a color that inits time had reduced many a Russian poet to tears." The sex scenes are amite (as it were) much, though nothing more gruesome than you'd see in youraverage PBS documentary. Still, Pelevin's best trick is to makes hissix-legged protagonists appear all too human. A self-doubting cicada, forexample, finds himself envying the relative ease of an ant's life: "But henever dwelt on such comparisons, aware that once he stopped and began tocompare himself with others, it would begin to seem that he had alreadyachieved a great deal, and he would lose the sense of resentment towardlife that was essential to continue his struggle." The Life ofInsects is a black-comic Metamorphosis for the1990s, minus Kafka's gravity and with an extra dose of Slavic neurosis. --William Davies ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

An Accurate Depiction of Russia in its Metamorphasis
This book took me on an absorbing journey filled with confusion and surrealism. Pelevin constantly keeps his readers on guard by having characters undergo metamorphosis (literally) between the human and insect state in the middle of sentences. Communism, society, and post-USSR Russia are satirized through such characters as a moth who questions his own existence, a dung beetle who adheres to what he has been taught all his life even when his beliefs do not answer his son's questions, an attractive ant who gets trapped in a domestic lifestyle she never wanted in the first place, and, of course, Sam the capitalist mosquito who drinks the blood of locals wherever he travels. Though there were several subplots occurring simultaneously, none of them were extraneous and all contributed to making this a unique and thought-provoking read.
Favorite quote from this book:
"The genuine light is any light that you can actually reach. The real point is not what you fly toward but who is doing the flying."- Mitya the moth

...Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'?
It seems to me that the plot of `The Life of Insects' might well derive from `The Metamorphosis' [Die Verwandlung - 1915], a famous story by Franz Kafka:

A young man (Gregor) awakes one morning in the form of a giant dung beetle. Gregor is unable to speak in his insect form, and never successfully communicates with his family at all after his physical appearance is revealed to them. However, he seems to retain his cognitive faculties, which is unknown to his family.

Although I believe that a review by Matt Curtin (Columbus, OH USA, see below) is interesting, I feel doubt that Pelevin's book is, as Matt writes, `an allegorical commentary on Russian society'. I could hardly generalize on Russian life, as it is so mosaic and buzzing. Nor am I sure that `Readers of Russian works will feel at home in The Life of Insects, as the story and its presentation has a distinctly Russian feel to it'. ...Um... It seems to me that I feel at Kafka's home.

I think the book represents european influence in Russian literature.

Love Love Love!
This was my first book by V. Pelevin, and I loved it!The story is very well built, very intriguing and unique.It's so unpredictable and the subjects of alcohol, marihuana, and mushrooms pop up so often, it makes you wonder if the author himself was on drugs when he wrote it!The hallucinating visions in the book bring you to the USSR era once again. Yeah.. been there, done that..Though, Pelevin chooses a very different angle to deliver the story, so it's worth the read. I definitely recommend it if you are not threatened to get lost in the Russian names (it looks like all my English speaking friends have troubles with those doesn't matter if they read Tolstoy or Pelevin..)

beauty in the bleak
"The Life of Insects" is not for the Disney-minded, though it delves quite frequently in the silly and absurd, and uses animals -- well, insects -- to represent people. The book is written as a comical "Metamorphosis," at times witty, silly, morbid and profound. Humanity is viewed as insects through some dismal, cosmic microscope. We are the insects always trying to find the light, but finding only darkness, pushing along a ball of dung (our corporeal body) and never rising above our materialistic predicament. As much as the novel describes these squallid Russian characters living in a sad state of affairs, reduced to the cruel plight of an insect existence, Pelevin is also pointing out that the majority is weak-minded in the first place, never questioning their dim fate and resigned to make contact only with dung. Pelevin's prose slaps the reader in the face, both poetic and philosophical, a mix of Bukowski, Emily Dickinson and Andy Goldsworthy, a stark raving loner, content to watch the paint peel and pick up from it designs of brutal bent.

An organic picture of Russian society.
In 1994, Russian author Viktor Pelevin first published his commentary on Russian society after perestroika and even after the fall of the Soviet Union. While many reviewers focus on the unique Russian character of Жизнь Насекомых [The Life of Insects], I was struck by its quality as an allegorical commentary on Russian society. While obvious comparisons to certain Russian masters like Chekhov and Turgenev seems inevitable, I thought more of the allegories and social commentaries of authors such as Zamyatin, Nabokov, and even Orwell. I read a 1996 translation into English by Andrew Bromfield.

The Life of Insects Rather than focus on the story of a single protagonist working his way through society, Pelevin opts to tell several stories in a single novel, allowing a picture to emerge of a society as a whole, not from the top-down as if by some Soviet-style central design, but rather from the bottom-up, where individuals live their own lives, only vaguely aware of others outside of their sphere. The Life of Insects becomes a commentary on modern society, Russian society, with various factions each being represented by some variety of insect, beginning with enterprising mosquitoes in a clear reference to the "New Russians" that emerged at the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Readers of Russian works will feel at home in The Life of Insects, as the story and its presentation has a distinctly Russian feel to it, something of a fatalist acceptance that whatever superficial changes we might make, nothing will ever be fundamentally different. Especially in the case of ants and dung beetles, we are shown very clearly that for whatever struggles might take place at the individual level, circumstances far beyond our control will dictate the manner of our daily lives as we hope to produce another generation of the species before we meet our own ends. If we live long enough to observe and pause long enough to reflect, we'll see our children doing exactly as we did-and only then will we really understand why our parents said what they said and did what they did as we struggled to reach maturity.

Some will be more pensive, actively thinking about where they are going instead of being shocked to see history repeating itself in front of their eyes. They will think about terms like paradise that people talk of, thinking about how pointless it is to dig, always to dig through the dirt, where breakfast and lunch are largely the same, and one always struggles to dig well enough to reach the surface. When finally getting there, realizing just what it means, and unable to share the insight.

Others will be more social, staying abreast of the news, sharing observations, insights, and experiences with others. While they experience their own ups and downs, their friends will be there, always supportive and a force for balance and stability. The trick, of course, is not to attract too much attention along the way, lest they find themselves on the receiving end of some action by the authorities to limit their influence.

Each of these has particular meaning in modern Russian society, with commentary not being difficult to follow-the text fairly clearly spells out the necessary parallels. Even so, similar lessons can certainly be drawn for other social structures as well.

I thought the translation equal to the task of presentation of the book in English, making it accessible even to those unfamiliar with Russian society beyond a place where one might see abbreviations such as NKVD and KGB. (One unexpected joy comes from familiarity with the issue of translation of language between Russian and English and the ability to sense the quality of translation. I am anxious to see the text in the original language and what construction Pelevin himself used that required Bromfield's nice little trick with the use of Ai- й + а, perhaps? Addendum: as it turns out the text is available online and it was just as I suspected.)

I thought the text an interesting tour of contemporary Russian society, as told by someone who lives within it but clearly sees it not just as a whole but in all its parts. The novel's structure was worthy to carry its ideas and the ideas worthy of consideration for society more broadly. ... Read more

Product Description
The gossamer wings of a dragonfly, the scarlet carapace of the lady beetle, the spectacular shape of the hawkmoth. The insect world teems with exotic forms and inspired renowned devotion in illustrators of the late 19th century. In a volume as jewel-like as its subject, The Anatomy of Insects & Spiders presents page after page of select engravings, woodcuts, and drawings from the Victorian era, the golden age of insect illustration. Meticulously rendered, they are paired with observations from early naturalists. The notes may describe the classification of the insect, how its body is constructed, its behavior and preferences, or its habitat. Arranged by insect type and covering all the families from bees and moths to ants and flies, The Anatomy of Insects & Spiders reveals detail that is normally seen only under a microscope. A natural for admirers of insect society, this charming volume is both a distinctive introduction and lively armchair companion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Misleading Title
This is a poorly written book without good information.There are only a couple of pages describing anatomical features, one page for insects and another for spiders.Neither insect development or evolutionary relationships are explored.Contrary to the other reviews, the sketches are not very detailed and the text is not very informative.Scales are not even provided for the size of the insects sketched and these 'entomologist' authors did not even identify many of the insects from engravings they printed from drawings done over 100 years ago.The glossary does not even list the few anatomy terms in the book.

One thing I wanted to learn, for example, is why insects have ocelli and compound eyes, but perhaps this knowledge is not to be revealed to the public!It's a real shame that another title published by academics turns out to be more of a farcical dearth than illuminative science.I thought I would learn more from this book about insect development and diversity.Better illustrations can be found in 'Life in the Soil' by James Nardi, which also has much more information.

The more salient feature of this book is that it has illustrations of different families of insects and often shows pupae, larvae, and adults, although numbered rather than labeled and with no scale.

pequeño y util
muy bonito pequeño y útil... tiene buenas gráficas y esta bien explicado,, una buena guía para entomología y estudiantes,, no es a color,, pero es muy bueno

Beautiful engraving-style pictures
It is a wonderful book although smaller than I had originally thought and it only includes the "woodblock" cut style images and very little color. But besides being not what I expected, it is truly a fabulous book and I am more than glad I purchased it. I only wish it were bigger scale so I could examine the woodcuts better. Really incredible.

Helpful
I wouldn't recommend this book to the average reader on the grounds that I don't think they will have much of a use for it.I would recommend it to students and professionals as a reference book to have on hand to go with the rest of your personnal library.I have many different insect books myself and have found this one to be somewhat useful though I have many others that I would use before it.I got this one as a bargain book and that's about all I would spend on it.If your like me though you have a lot of different books to compliment this one and they all turn out useful in the end.

Pretty to Look At
As a biologist, I get my fill of technical language and new terminology.This book is a welcome blend of art, history, and bugs.The reproductions are very well done and I was suprised at the number and variety of sketch-like prints that were included.

Would make a nice gift for a friend who is curious about the natural world. ... Read more

Product Description
The only comprehensive guide to insects of the Pacific Northwest, this handy reference is perfect for hikers, fishers, and naturalists. With coverage from southwestern British Columbia to northern California, from the coast to the high desert, it describes more than 450 species of common, easily visible insects and some noninsect invertebrates, including beetles, butterflies and moths, dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas, flies, bees, wasps, ants, spiders, millipedes, snails, and slugs. The more than 600 superb color photographs, helpful visual keys, and clear color-coded layout will make this field guide an invaluable resource for nature lovers throughout the region. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

a ok read
The book isin great shape, got here on time. Not really recommend the book. Compared to other insect field guides/information guides this book is not great. The pictures are amazing, but small. There are a lot of species in this book not found in other field guides, but very little information is given about them. I love the personal notes the author and her husband has with each insect! :-) But, overall can not see much use out of this book. Some sections have one example. I thought it could have used a lot more examples and info in each order.

an excellent book
This is a very comprehensive, well photographed book. I even found all the oak galls I have on my property. I initially ordered this as a christmas present, and liked it so much I ordered one for myself.

Spectacular Book
This book is fabulous for Humboldt County and almost as good for Mendocino County because it is so specific for this area.Most books of this nature are not specific to the northcoast of CA.The photographs are fabulous.And one thing I like is that it is not limited to the normal insects.It has galls caused by insects and some of the spiders, etc.Great job.

Dave Bengston

Yeah, it could be better, but 60 pages of beetle photographs...
Timber Press is usually pretty dependable when it comes to producing regional field guides and Peter and Judy Haggard's new insect guide certainly qualifies as a nice little regional field guide. When placed in a head-to-head against the Lone Pine analog _Bugs of Oregon and Washington_, it wins hands down (Lone Pine can be pretty hit-or-miss ranging from the indispensable _Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast_ and _Amphibians of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia_ to the down right useless _Birds of the Pacific Northwest Coast_).

Where _Bugs_ comes in at 160 pages with only one critter per page illustrated competently by Ian Sheldon, _Insects_ comes in at 295 pages with photographs of several species per page. The front 20% is beetles, easily the most comprehensive and useful section. It includes many of my favorites (_Calligrapha multipunctata_, _Ellychnia hatchi_) though Rain beetles (_Pleocoma_) and the snail-eating _Scaphinotus_ are curiously absent....

The Lepidoptera section is the largest section and includes plenty of caterpillars. The overly linear may find the sorted-by-size format that mixes the moths with the butterflies and discards taxonomic formalities a bit frustrating. There is, however, a key at the front that most non-entemologists will have no trouble using to navigate and since we non-entemologists have no expectations about what the order should be it's okay.

The most interesting section has photos of insect galls from wasps and gall midges. Dragonflies, true flies and most aquatic species (mayflies, stoneflies, etc) are woefully under represented and one gets the impression that the authors just left out species that were too hard to photograph or weren't particularly photogenic.The non-insect invertebrates section seems almost tacked on as an after-thought.

I'm sure that entemology purists will find plenty to complain about, just as ornithology purists complain about what's missing in bird guides and botany purists complain about omissions in plant guides, but for the rest of us- a regional guide with at least 100 beetle photographs will prove to be well worth buying.If Amazon allowed half stars, I'd rate this a 3.5, but since they don't, I'll round up to 4...

Nice idea, but very incomplete
First of all, I should acknowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of species of insects, and you can't expect a single book to cover all of them, even for a small area of the globe.That said, this book is still woefully lacking any sense of completeness.It seems to have gone overboard in covering "cute" insects (ten full pages of ladybird beetles, about half the book devoted to butterflies and moths), while leaving some things out completely.Earwigs and silverfish, for example, are entirely absent, as are the various aquatic bugs (water striders, backswimmers) that you find swimming on or under the water in most ponds.And while the book claims to cover some non-insect invertebrates, there's no mention whatsoever of pill bugs or even centipedes.

The organization could use some work, too; it's odd that all the families of Lepidoptera are sorted alphabetically, instead of at least divided first into butterflies vs. moths.

On the bright side, the photographs are excellent. ... Read more

Product Description
Insects On Display is a family craft how-to book and a book for crafters who like careful hand work. Described and illustrated are the steps necessary to create beautiful displays (case and dome) using real (but dead) insects and craft supplies. Even the most squeamish family members can be involved in this instructive hobby. And it's the perfect next step to help children display the specimens they captured and cared for. This book is the companion to The Insect Book: A Basic Guide to the Collection and Care of Common Insects for Young Children (ISBN 1-56825-037-1). Insects On Display will teach you how to 1] identify insect body parts (to help you follow the mounting instructions), 2] mount butterflies and moths (meaning to arrange them for presentation), 3] mount hard-shell insects (like beetles), 4] handle difficult-to-mount insects (like mantids), and 5] display specimens in cases and domes. Skills are highly illustrated, supplies and their sources are listed (including online sources), and it features a glossary, a suggested reading list and an index. ... Read more

Product Description
The intimate associations between plants and the insects that eat them have helped define and shape both groups for millions of years. This pioneering volume is a comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of the evolutionary biology of herbivorous insects, including their relationships with host plants and natural enemies. Chapters focus on the dynamic relationships between insects and plants from the standpoint of evolutionary change at different levels of biological organization--individuals, populations, species, and clades. Written by prominent evolutionary biologists, entomologists, and ecologists, the chapters are organized into three sections: Evolution of Populations and Species; Co- and Macroevolutionary Radiation; and Evolutionary Aspects of Pests, Invasive Species, and the Environment. The volume is unified by the idea that understanding the ecological framework of the interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants is fundamental to understanding their evolution. ... Read more

Product Description
California has a vast number of insect species: estimates run 30,000-35,000 or more, and even in the better known groups, new species occasionally are discovered. This volume is the first attempt in more than half a century to summarize knowledge of this rich insect fauna, and the first work ever to provide a field guide for beginning students, and the nonspecialist reader. It selects about 600 of the more characteristic kinds of insects to represent the huge variety known. Most of these are conspicuous kinds often noticed in cities or in natural areas by gardeners, hikers, fishermen, etc. For each insect, distinguishing features of its appearance, features of its biology, and its geographical distribution in California are summarized: and an illustration (photograph or drawing) is given of the adult or some other stage.
California Insects will serve as a convenient, compact introduction to the identification and understanding of these often strange and fascinating creatures. Used with other information sources cited in the text, it provides the student, collector, or naturalist a means of efficiently developing knowledge of specialized groups of insects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An enjoyable read for Californians
Having mastered Bugs of Northern California, the perfect local book for beginners, I was ready to move on, and this book is the perfect next step--limited to California, but still very complete. There is one set of color plates, so those expecting color photos for every bug will be disappointed. However, what I love are the descriptions--they are well written and very informative. Even limited to California, there are more flies than I will ever be able to identify, yet the descriptions of their differences are still fascinating. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents, in question and answer format, information about the behavior, food-gathering, defenses, anatomy, and surprising habits of all kinds of insects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good read about insects for kids
Time-Life's "A Child's First Library of Learning" provides young readers with a solid resource for learning about the world around them.This volume focuses on insects. The normal format is followed here, a series of questions are posed regarding insects and then answers are provided. There are some activities for kids at the back and a series of inserts throughout providing additional information.

The first question, to open the book, is (Page 4) "Where can we see insects?" Personally, I think it should have been "What are insects?" In small letters, there is one definition, "All adult insects have six legs." But that's pretty much it at the outset. One nice feature of this series is "To the parent," a brief insert that gives information to parents that they can speak about with their children.

The second question, to illustrate," is "Why do butterflies like flowers?" The answer focuses on the nectar that butterflies use as nutrition. Other questions scattered throughout the book: "Why do scarab beetles have horns?" "Why do fireflies glow?" "What is an ant nest like?" "Did you know that honeybees talk to one another?" "Did you know that crickets have ears?" "Why do only female mosquitoes bite?"

The book concludes with a standard feature in this series--some activities for kids. The exercises ask for such things as completing a check list of insects and other animals that children have seen.

All in all, a solid entry in the series. . . .

Wonderful resource for children (and parents!)
What makes a firefly glow?How do ants find sugar? . . . and so on.A wonderfully informative and entertaining book on the realm of insects.Great illustrations that children can understand (such as showing a subterranean environment).Beautiful, stimulating, sharp photographs. Adult-level "to the parent" side notes.A "growing-up album" section in the rear for parents to keep a log of their child's experiences (pets, questions, adventures).If you had just one resource book on insects for your kids . . . this should be it.

Children can probably start appreciating this one as they approach age 3, and will carry up into their grade school years easily.

Get your insect questions answered here!
What are these strange things? That is one of the 39 questions that comprise the contents of INSECT WORLD. This little science book is perfectfor young children. With a mix of drawings and photography, the text ofthis book answers the questions that children are curious about. Do Insectsvisit flowers only to get nectar? No, bees collect nectar and pollen, somebeetles eat flower pollen, mantises catch insects that come to theflowers.Why do bees sting? Adults usually know this answer, but a child maynot. Even so, children have a developmental need to see the answers overand over. This book is perfect for revisitation into wonder and knowledge! ... Read more

Product Description

• What kind of insect does a back flip?
• Which bug will wrestle with a rival?

Customer Reviews (5)

We didnt find this book helpful, fun or informative
This is not what we expected.I thought they could have at least printed actual photos of the insects not just hand drawn black and white pictures.I also was surprised that there were not many insects listed and that some very common ones, at least for New England, were not in there at all.
We waited a very long time for this book to arrive and were very disappointed when it did.

My cousin loved it!
My cousin is a bugaholic and loved this book. It definitely came in handy especially during the summer. Kudos to the author for writing a knowledgeable and readable book for my 9-year-old cousin!

My Kid Loved It
Very good book about bugs that kids can keep.My son loved it and before the week was out was going around looking a bugs and telling me what they were.It's a great text for kids of reading age who want to know more about bugs and how to keep them alive so that they can study them.

Another Natural Wonder
Who would have thought the bugs would make such great pets ? Pet bugs is an original and exciting book to introduce children and adults to the wonderful world of bugs.

Pet Bugs is a unique book of it's kind as there isn't much books around on keeping insects, after all who wants to keep a slimy bug? But this book is different. It shatters the image of "slimy bugs" and introduces these creatures as ideal pets.

Pet Bugs is a well organised and a highly detailed book. The book is divided into different chapters, and each chapter specialises in a specific kind of bug- for example butterflies. Each chapter talks about three or four bugs you can keep, with information on how to catch the bugs, where to find the bugs, how to house the creature and feed them. Information on each bug is also provided, which is easy to understand.

This is an excellent book however, if photographs where included, it could have been better.

Overall this book is for any pet lover or budding naturalist alike.

Pet Bugs saves many lives
Pet Bugs is going to save the lives of many innocent bugs, at least in our house. It tells you how to care for them, what to feed them, and what to watch for when you're interested in learning from them. My five year oldand I love the information in this book--and so will the bugs that have animproved chance at life in captivity. ... Read more

Product Description

A busy bee, a quiet snail, a colorful butterfly -- young children's favorite insects and crawly creatures are all here in superb close-up photographs. Why does a spider spin a web? How does a grasshopper hop? Simple text and detailed illustrations will satisfy inquisitive preschoolers who are busy learning about the world around them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book for young children
This is a great book in the Eye Openers series.This book contains pictures and a short paragraph on each subject; snail, spider, butterfly, bumblebee, grasshopper, ladybug and damselfly.My two chilren ages 2 and 4 just love this book. ... Read more

Product Description

Baculovirus Expression Protocols is a detailed guide for using the baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) and/or insect cells to produce recombinant proteins. Procedures for the development and production of baculovirus insecticides at both laboratory and large scale are described in the kind of step-by-step format that the Methods in Molecular Biology™ series helped standardize. This book is a one-stop source for information on baculoviruses, and includes sections on using modified baculoviruses to express genes in mammalian cells, using Drosophila cell lines, isolating new cell lines, and developing serum-free medium. Specific applications, including using baculovirus and insect cell system to study apoptosis, are also discussed. This updated and expanded edition of Baculovirus Expression Protocols provides a perfect lab manual for biochemists, molecular biologists, biochemical engineers, and others for using the BEVS or insect cell lines to produce recombinant proteins.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Confusing for the parent!
The illustrations in this book are out of this world beautiful! Unfortunately, the book is not well-organized and many of the insects are not named.It talks about, say, body parts of the insect and there is a picture of a particular bug. My son asks me, "What's that?"There is no quick and easy way to tell.So I scan the page to try to figure it out.Usually, I do eventually as the text briefly mentions, "Like this such-and-such".But some pictures are not named at all. I ultimately gave up on this one after my son lost interest as a result of too many, "Mmmm... I am not sure... let's see... I think it's a beetle!"

great info
Insects by Barbara Taylor is a complete science lesson on insects compiled into one book. Topics included in the book are What is an insect?, types of insects, the life cycle of an insects and much more.This book will teach children lots of great information about insects.


I like the hands on projects that were in the back of the book. These would make great projects to share with friends.


I would recommend this book for kids ages 5-9. I feel that mostly boys will enjoy this book. They seem to be more into insects than girls most of the time.

A close look at animals through beautiful color photos
Insects is part of a new series for the very young which takes a close look at animals through beautiful color photos and close-ups. Insects gets right down to the feet, claws, and mouths of tarantulas, beetles, and many insects, with an easy 'I am a...' introduction to each providing quick facts in an understandable format. ... Read more

Product Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors ofThe Ants render the extraordinary lives of the social insects in this visuallyspectacular volume.The Superorganism promises to be one ofthe most important scientific works published in this decade. Coming eighteen years after thepublication of The Ants, this newvolume expands our knowledge of the socialinsects (among them, ants, bees, wasps, andtermites) and is based on remarkable researchconducted mostly within the last two decades.These superorganisms—a tightly knit colony ofindividuals, formed by altruistic cooperation,complex communication, and division oflabor—represent one of the basic stages ofbiological organization, midway between theorganism and the entire species. The study ofthe superorganism, as the authors demonstrate,has led to important advances in ourunderstanding of how the transitions betweensuch levels have occurred in evolution and howlife as a whole has progressed from simple tocomplex forms. Ultimately, this book provides adeep look into a part of the living worldhitherto glimpsed by only a very few.

110 color, 100 black-and-white. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Science Book club selection
This was a VERY inforative book but it was NOT an easy read.The graphics helped but there was more data provided than I ever wanted to know about ants.

Informative, But a Dry Read
First of all, I am not an entomologist, but insects have always been a fascination of mine. As a kid, I read over and over the few books I could get about ants and bees. So I was expecting that this book would have that same fascination for me.

If you are looking for information about ants and bees as social insects, this book is full of fascinating and very detailed information -- down to the pheromones certain species emit for specific tasks. Even for someone with a fairly good entomology background, though, I found the text really dense with scientific terminology and jargon. I got the sense this was written for other ant specialists, not for the general population or hobbyists. For facts and information, I would say this book is a 5 star book.

However, I guess I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't a more entertaining read. I really enjoy natural history and anecdotes about insects. I work as a naturalist for the State Parks system and lead nature hikes and classes. Ants are everywhere, and I was hoping both to feed my own curiosity and evoke the curiosity of others with information gleaned from this book. Instead, I felt like I was reading dense text book. I could read a few pages at a time, but then had to put it down. So as a read just for pleasure it was kind of a bust. Hence the overall rating of 3.

WOnderful read
Saw the E.O. Wilson and figured it would be a good interesting read. So far, partly into it, I was right. Something about ants that makes me smile. No matter where I travel, or what I'm doing, they are there. Wish I'd started looking earlier !

Fun book.

A Superorganism
I love the book and so does my grand son Miles who is 5 years old, he loves the pictures. So waht do ants play for fun - or do they just work and fight?

The Superorganism
Excellent book, somewhat on the highly technical side but never boring, always challanging. The book is full of great drawings and photographs! ... Read more

Product Description

View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"

This book is a work of major importance for the development of environmental and behavioral biology; it covers the classification, evolution, anatomy, physiology, and behavior of the higher social insects--ants, social wasps and bees, and termites. Mr. Wilson reinterprets the knowledge of these insects through the concepts of modern biology, from biochemistry to evolutionary theory and population ecology.

Customer Reviews (4)

Good book.
Book was bought as a gift.

The receiver loved in.

Personally, I felt that the book was a bit pricey, but a great academic read or even a good read for those who are into insect societies. Nevertheless, a good buy.

A cult following
This book has proven unexpectedly influential in the fields of artificial intelligence and pattern formation---make a bunch of agents which follow one or two simple rules, and they can make generic large-scale structures resembling societies.

It's a fascinating structuralist view of societies: rather than say, a Napoleon (or the queen), ants are ruled by hundreds of mindless actions dictated by enviornment (you and me). History, society is a constant pressure.

It's also brilliantly written and highly informative. This is a book for the ages.

Very complete book
This book was over my head(I don't have any sort of biology background, just more of a backyard naturalist who is hungry to learn)but nonethless I appreciate it for all the incredible information documented here.Its a very big book - 550 pages long and seems more like a serious reference text book for the student studying insects.In that context I think it'd be perfect.There are great drawinging, very detailed and indeed pretty too.There are insect family trees, drawing of nests and eggs, etc.I find the information in here fantastic.I enjoyed the chapter on behavior since that was what I originally was interested in learning about.Wilson talks about mazes with blind alleys and other neat things that ants do.Anyway, great book just be prepared for it to be very very technical.

Here are some of the chapters:
- Intro: the importance of societal insects
-degrees of social behavior
-the social wasps
- the ants
-the social bees
- the termites
- the presocial ants
- caste: ants
- caste: social bees and wasps
- caste: termites
- the elements of behavior
- communication: alarm
- communication: recruitment
- comminucation: recognition, food, grooming
- symbiosis
- population dynamics

Very good
An outstanding book, very enjoyable. Discusses ants, wasps, bees, termites, etc. A little bit dated now, but it still has one of the best overviews of social insects and their evolution of which I am aware. It is also very readable, with numerous illustrations. ... Read more

Product Description
Fully revised and updated to include new topical study areas, the second edition of the successful text the Ecology of Insects provides a balanced treatment of the theory and practice of pure and applied insect ecology.

• Includes new topical areas of insect ecology and provides greater coverage of physiological, genetic, molecular, and ecosystem aspects of insect ecology
  
• Concepts include the foundations of evolutionary ecology and population dynamics in ecosystem science as they are applied to topics such as climate change, conservation and biodiversity, epidemiology and pest management
  
• Fully updated and revised throughout, this new edition refers to primary literature and real world examples.

To access the artwork from the book, please visit: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/speightinsects. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Hundreds of annotated color photographs aid in the identification of common North American insects and describe their life cycles, feeding habits, host plants, and natural predators. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good reference book
This book is a great reference!However the are some caveats... it has been awhile since it was last published... lighting gasoline in a trench or pouring creosote in the trench for control of armyworms is effective but not recommended (nor good for the environment), but at least she gives other options for control than to spray every caterpillar with Bt as so many other organic gardening books do.I love her recommendations using a molases/bran slurry.Control measures like those can be effective and for the most part have been lost.The pictures are so very helpful,too.She has the egg, immature and adult stage for almost every pest she lists. Very good reference. ... Read more

Product Description
I'd just like to add me as the illustrator to these books:

by April Pulley Sayre (Author)Trip Park (Illustrator) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Goofy Fun and Educational To Boot! - a review of "Ant, Ant, Ant!: an insect chant'
My two kids -- boy and girl; currently 7 and 9 -- have been pouring over Ant3 every chance they get, sometimes getting into a tussle over who is going to hold the book, or what page they should study. And despite the sometime raised voices, I couldn't be happier as the book is not only entertaining... it's EDUCATIONAL!

The lyrics in this book essentially serve to name the insects in a fashion that helps kids (and adults) to remember their names. (Here's an example.)

Cockroach,
Earwig.
Like them? Can't!

Firefly,
Flower Fly,
Ant,
Ant,
Ant!

I know they don't look like much printed out like this, but if you combine the chants with Trip Park's playful drawings they take on a life of their own. In fact, if you take a look at the picture below, you'll see what I mean. The artwork manages somehow to be both physically accurate and yet preposterous and funny.

And I know the book works as an educational tool because my daughter's already identified a Click Bug based on the picture and description. [This picture --graciously supplied to BooksForKids-reviews by the publisher and Mr. Park-- is one of my favorites. It's sans text if you're wondering.]


Wrap Up:::
An excellent book that can introduce young children to a broad range of insects. The chants name the critters, while the illustrations and the 4-page 'dictionary' make the book both fun and educational.

Both of my children are using the dictionary at the back to find out more about the insects. Here's what you'll find in the entry on Flower Flies: Flower flies, which are flies, are important pollinators. They feed on pollen and nectar. This is a great kid-friendly answer that's not overly detailed, but just right for youngsters.

Ms. Sayre also is wise enough to guess what questions are likely going to pop up in kids' heads. For example, about Earwigs: Earwigs don't hide in ears or wigs. These nocturnal plant-eaters hide in leaves, bark, and other crevices during the day. They pinch attackers with their two cerci or give off a stinky-smelling liquid.

Fear Factor: The insects aren't as sweetly goofy as some of the fish were. Some indeed seem a little menacing -- which my 7 year-old son thought was cool. That said, some toddlers and preschoolers might possibly be put off. You'll just have to test and see if the time is right.

The Accelerated Reading designation for "Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant" is a generic "2" which means that the book is written on the 2nd Grade level, with no precise month assigned.

Pam T~
mom and reviewer for BooksforKids-reviews

Another great chant!
We love Trout trout trout and Ant ant ant is not a disappointment.The illustrator and author make a wonderful team and I hope to see many more books come from both of them.My 4 year old loves this book!

5 year old loves this!
This along with Trout, Trout, Trout have been two favorite books around our house recently. My son is 5 and thinks this book is great. He especially loves the part about the dung beetle. The fun rhyme introduces children to a variety of insects, and the pictures are super. It's very educational and fun at the same time.

A zany set of bug drawings and facts
Ant, Ant, Ant! (An Insect Chant) receives Trip Park's fun drawings as it follows up on the popular Trout, Trout, Trout! (A Fish Chant) to provide a zany set of bug drawings and facts. Yes, insect facts are included within the zany set of insect identification - and Trip Park's large-size and unique color drawings are quite vivid, adding to the excitement of a top pick.
... Read more

Product Description
A thorough reference on hatches and the correct selection of flies by color, size, and imitative strategy.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Trout Stream Insects
Good stuff to have in your vest as you walk along the stream, wondering what the trout are eating that day.

Trout Stream Insects
Trout Stream Insects: An Orvis Streamside Guide
I ordered this for my husband.He wanted something to carry in his fishing vest.This was perfect.He liked the added bonus of it being signed by the author.Price was great, shipping was great.All in all, an excellent transaction.

Trout Stream Insects
This book is a very informative outline of the life of an insect. It gives specific pictures and examples of what most every fly looks like throughout its metamorphasis stages.I am a beginning fly fisherman and I would liketo learn more about what the flies that I use look like.I believe thatthis book is very relavant to the type of flies that I would use here inthe northeast.The way that this book explains the specific differencesfrom fly to fly is amazing.I need to know these type of things to bettermyself in the art of fly fishing. ... Read more