Looking for books about Insects/Spiders

August 6, 2010 2:00 PM

Can you please recommend good books (fiction or nonfiction) or websites about insects and/or spiders..? Not so much identification books, but ones about how they live, interact, etc.
posted by drezdn to science & nature (15 answers total)

I should have mentioned that I'm looking for books geared towards adults.
posted by drezdn at 2:02 PM on August 6, 2010

I recommend looking over the works of E.O. Wilson.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:07 PM on August 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Stretching the "geared towards adults" thing a bit, but Clan Apis is a graphic novel that goes into great detail about the honeybee life cycle.
posted by richyoung at 2:13 PM on August 6, 2010

Adventures among ants is a highly rated newer book about, you guessed it, ants. I heard the author on NPR, and he was quite a character. The book is both a picture book and a detailed non-fictional account of several species. It is very highly rated on Amazon as well.
posted by ShootTheMoon at 2:18 PM on August 6, 2010

For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner is just incredibly wonderful. It is also a good look at an inquisitive mind and how sometimes the simplest questions can lead to the nicest science.
posted by sciencegeek at 2:28 PM on August 6, 2010

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but I've got to mention it anyway: Charlotte's Web. Great book.
posted by copperykeen at 3:12 PM on August 6, 2010

My go to website is Bugguide.net. I regularly check up on the ID request and Forum sections. Lots of great discussions in there about feeding habits, behavior, taxonomy and lots more.
posted by sanka at 3:17 PM on August 6, 2010

Mefite sanka has a small blog with some great macro photos of spiders minnesotaspiders.blogspot.com.

Also What's That Bug?
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:39 PM on August 6, 2010

The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich is a memoir of growing up in Europe during WWII with a wasp collecting father. It is one of those books that combines nature, the story of a man's life and some interesting history (often it is the parts that are left out that are most interesting).
posted by sciencegeek at 3:50 PM on August 6, 2010

The naturalist Gerald Durrell's first memoir, My family and other animals, has quite a lot about the insect life native to Corfu. Also, it's hilarious.
posted by Wantok at 4:14 PM on August 6, 2010

I highly recommend Sue Hubbel's Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs. Her other stuff is also great reading.

I also enjoyed Sue Halpern's Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly.
posted by trip and a half at 5:01 PM on August 6, 2010

Gordon Grice's "The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators" is a great collection of essays. There are 7 chapters, each devoted to a different predator, and 3 about about spiders. Another is about the "mantid." So 4 out of 7 chapters would meet your request. I read this book out of sheer interest in essay-writing and loved it. (In fact, thanks for motivating me to pull this off the shelf again.)
posted by Alizaria at 5:05 PM on August 6, 2010

Bugs in the System. A little heavier going than most of what I read, but not so technical as a paper. Really interesting stuff.
posted by Ys at 6:43 PM on August 6, 2010

Following the Bloom is more about migratory beekeepers than insect behavior, but it is an extremely enjoyable read somewhat reminiscent of John McPhee's non-geology writing.
posted by sciencegeek at 7:41 AM on August 14, 2010

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.
posted by drezdn at 7:56 AM on August 15, 2010