Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America (Kaufman Field Guides) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Alas, a good insect field guide is hard to come by. When I ordered the Kaufman guide I was optomistic that it could replace the badly outdated Peterson's guide; sadly this is not the case.

For a neophyte looking to ID your common backyard bugs this would suffice. There are plenty of wonderful pictures that can't otherwise be found in printed form. But for a serious student of entomology this 'guide' is of minimal use. There is virtually no information given to help in IDing a specimen. The guide goes with a purely visual approach which is simply not efficient for studying the great diversity of North American Hexapoda; unfortunately there is still no good choice for an up-to-date compact guide. For exhaustiveness, try picking up a copy of Borror & Delong's.

Even with its faults, I would still recommend picking this one up. The Kaufman guide is a good value, even if it will only be useful for the weekend entomologists out there.

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Product Description:
Many insects are difficult even for the experts to identify. In the new Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, readers will find a wealth of information on the amazing observable behaviors of insects and their fascinating life histories. Naturalists Kenn Kaufman and Eric R. Eaton use a broad ecological approach rather than overly technical terms, making the book accessible and understandable for everyone. The lively and engaging text emphasizes the insects that are most likely to catch our attention but includes information on all groups that can be recognized. The guide is lavishly illustrated, with more than 2,350 digitally enhanced photographs representing every major group of insects found in North America north of Mexico. Comprehensive yet compact, authoritative yet easy to understand, this is the perfect guide for anyone who wants to know more about the fascinating and diverse insects of North America.

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Learning About and Living With Insects of the Southwest: How to Identify Helpful, Harmful and Venomous Insects Review

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(More customer reviews)the book is just what i wanted......information was a littleshort, but covered the basics.the only thing that could have made it better would be to have had actual pictures of the real species.it wasn't disappointing at all!

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Product Description:
Insects of the Southwest describes over 120 of the most common bugs and "creepy crawlies" you're likely to share your house or yard with from day to day.
Provides interesting and important facts and historical information on the many fascinating insects and arthropods that inhabit the Southwest-the region ranging from Southern California through Arizona to Central Texas, and north into Utah, Colorado and Nevada.
Introduces both adults and children to the wonders of observation-while never needing to go more than a few yards from home. Easy-to-read and understand.
Drawings and text help you learn about and identify these tiny creatures and know the difference between some of the fearsome-looking-but-harmless bugs and those that are venomous. Plus, household "pets and pests" and which bugs are which.
Learn about the Africanized "killer" bee spiders and the real pests they eat, the many varieties of cockroaches, crop pests and "flashy bugs" found in the desert and mountains.
Floyd Werner, Ph.D. and Carl Olson, M.S., entomologists at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, share their affection for the diversity and necessity of all creatures. They'll arm us with a fuller knowledge to help us appreciate and respect the role insects play as the recyclers in nature and even dispell some of the fears and misconceptions many of us have about the earth's most numerous inhabitants.

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Firefly Encyclopedia of Insects and Spiders Review

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(More customer reviews)The Firefly Encyclopedia series are uniformly excellent.There are several current volumes (Insects & Spiders, Reptiles & Amphibians, and Birds).With luck additional volumes will be added (I'd be especially keen to see one on fishes).The series picks up the tradition started with the David Macdonald's "Encyclopedia of Mammals" by having numerous experts contribute information about the organisms they study.Thus, each species or group of organisms is described by the scientists who know them best.The result is a truly amazing compilation of information about each type of organism.

The Insects and Spiders volume contains information from 23 separate contributors about all types of insects and spider-like creatures.Contents include:

Overview of Arthropods:6 pages
Millipedes and Centipedes:6 pages
Insects, general information:14 pages
Separate sections on (sections without indicated page lengths usually 2-3 pages long):Bristletails, Mayflies, Dragonflies & Damselfies, Cockroaches (4 pages), Termites, Mantids (4 pages), Earwigs, Stoneflies, Crickets & Grasshoppers (12 pages), Leaf & Stick Insects, Booklice and Webspinners, Zorapterans & Thrips, Parasitic Lice, Bugs (16 pages), Snakewings & Alderflies, Lacewings, Beetles (16 pages), Scorpionflies, Fleas, Flies (16 pages), Caddisflies, Butterflies & Moths (24 pages), Wasps & Ants & Bees (24 pages)
Arachnids, general information:4 pages
Spiders:14 pages
Mites & Ticks: 6 pages
Scorpions & other Arachnids:4 pages

The book is lavishly illustrated.There are tons of amazing photographs and lots of beautifully rendered drawings.The text is well written and generally easy to follow.Some sections are fairly technical (I have a Ph.D. in Biology and got lost a few times), but probably 90% or more should be accessible to anyone. I strongly recommend this book for biologists, naturalists, and people interested in wildlife.It would make an excellent gift for a young person (probably junior high +) who likes animals.

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Insects: Revised and Updated (Golden Guide) Review

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(More customer reviews)Almost the first book on insects that I ever acquired was a hardbound edition of this little guide in the early 1950s.Indeed, I wore out several copies before I graduated to Lutz's "Field Book of Insects" and later more up to date guides.While a bit behind in modern systematics, this guide still has enchanting pictures, mostly the same ones I poured over during my childhood.It was here I first caught the insect "bug" that eventually propelled me into a career in biological sciences. Zim's early "Golden Guide to Insects" was a magic carpet into the fantastic world of insects and I think that it must still be luring young people to at least appreciate the six-legged crowd. I know that the images in this book are still burned into my brain, especially that of the beautiful buckeye butterfly and the various horned scarab and carrion beetles.

I highly recommend this book for children as a first insect book, but I sort of wish they had kept the original yellow cover!

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Product Description:
Enjoy and Learn!
Expert Knowledge!
Easy-to-Read!

This handy guide to the most common, important and showy North American insects will help the novice begin a fascinating study.Includes:
A key to insect groups
Mature and immature forms
How insects grow and develop and what they eat
How to find and observe them

Full color pictures, nontechnical language, and up-to-date range maps make this a gem of a guide for beginners at any age.

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