Kirkus Reviews QR Code
SPIDERS AND HOW THEY LIVE: A P.H. Jr. Research Book by Eugene David

SPIDERS AND HOW THEY LIVE: A P.H. Jr. Research Book

By

Pub Date: March 16th, 1964
Publisher: Prentice-Hall

The book starts with a description of how to house and care for spiders while studying them. Why anybody should study them quickly becomes apparent in the author's lively presentation of such as the spinning spiders luring in their living menus; the jumping spiders pouncing on their prey; and the crab spider. This last group sports a dedicated, if easily confused, approach to motherhood for if the infant cocoon falls from her back she picks up and contentedly carts a comparable weight, maybe forever. In addition to diet and habitat, there are the intricate courtship patterns with moody Shes eyeing succulent Hes and deciding on love or lunch or both. A section on trap-door spiders, which concentrates on the clever mechanics and architecture practiced by this group, is followed by a section on water spiders and their adventurous aquatic life. It is all here together with spider enemies in a simply worded text with the scientific names introduced in caps, pronounced and defined. Seen without the illustrations of Delos Blackman.