595. Books on  Arthropoda

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Further Reading:

Arthur V. Evans Beetles of Eastern North America, 2014.

Everything you could want to know about the beetles of Canada and the United States east of the Mississippi River is detailed in Arthur V. Evans’s field guide. Evans covers over 1,400 beetle species with the geographic region, natural history, and photographs for each. He also includes information on beetle biology and taxonomy.

Dave Goulson A Sting in the Tail: My Adventures with Bumblebees, 2013.

British biologist Dave Goulson writes of his efforts to save the short-haired bumblebee, once common in Kent but now extinct globally, except for a few descendants of queen bees shipped to New Zealand in the 19th century.

Philip Howse Seeing Butterflies: New Perspectives on Colour, Patterns, and Mimicry, 2014.

Butterflies are beautiful, but their brilliant colors and patterns exist for a reason—so they can avoid being eaten. Phillip Howse explains how the wings of butterflies evolved to look like everything from millipedes to owls to deter birds from eating them. He also provides identification information for many types of butterflies.

Erich Hoyt Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World, 1999.

Award-winning nature and conservation writer Erich Hoyt recounts stories and other writings about insects from the Bible to the end of the 20th century. Hoyt introduces and annotates each selection.

Mark W. Moffett Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions, 2010.

As he travels the globe studying ants, biologist Mark W. Moffett photographs and details the lives of ants from every continent. He provides fascinating stories from his exploits while collecting the data.

Candace Sauage Bees: Nature’s Little Wonders, 2008.

Even though bees have tiny brains and a five-week lifespan, they exhibit astonishing intelligence through symbolic dances, sociosexual habits, and relationships with flowers. Sauage also looks at colony collapse disorder and considers how we can help the bees survive and thrive.

Paul Williams, et al. Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide, 2014.

Researchers and amateur bee enthusiasts will appreciate this guide to the forty-six bumble bee species found north of Mexico. Based on the latest research, this guide has an updated taxonomy, distribution maps, photographs, and graphs of seasonal activity patterns.

Edward O. Wilson and Bert Holldobler Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration, 1994.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning book is considered a scientific classic. The lifelong passion of the authors for ants opens their hidden world to our consciousness. They demonstrate that ant societies, in many ways, are reminiscent of those of humans.

Noah Wilson-Rich The Bee: A Natural History, 2014.

In the wake of the disturbing reductions in bee populations, Noah Wilson-Rich and a team of bee experts explore the relationships between bees and human food supplies. Beyond that, they look at how bees are integral to the health of our planet. Not only do Wilson-Rich and his team provide information about the 20,000 or so bee species, but they also offer practical advice on how we can help them flourish.

For more information on the Further Reading section, see Further Reading: Start Here.