Another marvelous Collins Field Guide, with illustrations and descriptions of over 450 British and European spiders. Small, black "money spiders" have been excluded from the book, as most people tend to ignore these anyway.

The first part of the book includes info about the biology of spiders, their structure, senses, life history and bites. It also provides facts on collecting, hunting, preserving and identifying spiders. Finally, it describes egg sacs and webs.

The main part of the book contains 32 superbly illustrated color plates. Descriptive texts provide information on each species, as well as a wealth of facts on distribution, habitat and maturity season. Texts are accompanied by line drawings of female  epigynes and male  palpal organs, essential to identification.

To avoid frequent repetitions in the species texts, many facts common to several different spiders are placed in the introductions to families or other major groups. The guide also includes identification keys, which can be very useful in determining the identity of spiders.

Contents:

• Preface
• How to Use this Book
• Introduction
  • Spiders and their Near Relatives
• The Biology of Spiders
  • The Structure of Spiders
  • Senses and Communication
  • Life History
  • Spider Bites
• Collecting and Preserving Spiders
  • Hunting
  • Trapping
  • Codes of Conduct and Safety
  • Preservation
• Identifying and Recording Spiders
  • Identifying Preserved Spiders
  • Identifying Spiders in the Field
  • The Spider Recording Scheme
• The Names and Classification of Spiders
  • Names
  • Pronunciation
• Key to the Families of Northern European Spiders
• Webs
  • General Introduction
  • The Webs
  • Web Construction
• SUBORDER ORTHOGNATHA (Mygalomorphae)
  • 1 Family Fully Described
• SUBORDER LABIDOGNATHA (Araneomorphae)
  • 33 Families Fully Described
• Glossary
• Associations, Societies and Journals
• Suppliers of Equipment and Books
• Bibliography
• Index

I truly believe that this is the best field guide to European spiders available worldwide, even though casual naturalists, who are just interested in identifying a spider or two in their back yards, are likely to find the contents too scientific.

The hard-cover book, which I own, consists of 383 pages, plus 32 color plates, making a grand total of 415 pages. It is a sturdy, well bound book and is holding up exceptionally well, however it has only seen moderate field use. Highly recommended!

Click on the thumbnails below to view images of the cover and inside pages.

To order the book online, kindly follow this link to amazon.co.uk. Thanks again for looking and happy spider watching!

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