Golden Guide 160 Pages Paperback Insects Book

by Clarence Cottam, James Gordon Irving (Illustrator)

Golden Guide insects book. Contains listings for 225 species which are grouped by order. Includes range maps and an index of scientific names. 160 pages book, paperback.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Nature, Science, Field Guides, Animals, Guides

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[Jessaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mother knew I loved nature, so she began giving me these nature books when I was young, maybe from ages 8 to 11.

I used to look up insects in these books so I could identify them. I wasn't much into learning about their habits.

The strangest one was a scorpion spider. I learned by poking at it with a stick that it would grab the stick and almost not let go. I look back now and think, how mean of me.

It just goes to show that even though you have nature books and like insects, a child really needs to learn to not harm them, not unless they are poisonous. Some people won’t even kill a poisonous insect, spider or snake. I draw a line.

And then there was the potato bug. How ugly. I never liked seeing them, and I believe their real name is Jerusalem cricket.


Then we had stink bugs, bombarding beetles, earwigs, sow bugs, scorpions, antlions, ants, and if I still had my book I would tell you what else we had in Paso Robles, CA where I grew up.

Best of all, I loved the doodlebugs. My father used to call me Doodlebug because I loved them so much. They are also known as antilions because they catch ants and are ferocious like a lion, but they are harmless to hold in your hand. Antlions make funnels or pits in the sand, and my father told me if I bent down close to the pit and called, “Here doodle, doodle,” one would come up. And, yes, they did, but not because I was calling their name; instead, it was because I was disturbing the sand, causing the antlion to think that an ant had fallen into its trap. The antlion would then toss up sand in order to hit the ant, causing it to not be able to get out of the trap, and soon the ant would fall into its clutches. Nature is cruel.

Antlions turn into flying creatures that look somewhat like a dragonfly, only they, unlike the dragonfly, fly at night.

I seldom see some of my favorite insects anymore. The praying mantis is one that I seldom see. I used to let them crawl on my arm. I bought some praying mantis egg sacks one year, and for a while I would see one in our yard, but that is because they are territorial and eat each other. One day I found one in our kitchen on the wall. I got it to climb up on my hand and took it outside.

When we lived in Creston, CA I had bought some there also, and when they hatched they were everywhere, even in the house. Such cute little babies. I gathered the few I found and put them outside. I should have taken them far away so they could live and reproduce elsewhere.

Back in the 1980s when I was traveling with friends in Mexico we stopped at a lagoon in the Yucatan. My friends went on ahead of me, and I stopped to look at a strange insect. "You guys need to come back and look at this!" They ignored me. I thought, Maybe I should have become an insectologist. I know, this is a made up word.


We also get walking sticks once in a while. I love those too. They are large here. One day I found one floating in our dog’s water dish in the house. Dead. I wish I had seen it sooner because I could have saved it.

While we get Japanese lady bugs, we don't get the real lady bugs, but they are allowed in the house anyway, even though people say that they bite. By allowed, I mean that I don’t bother to try to get them back outside as it is too troublesome. And then there is the dreaded Japanese beetle that eats all the leaves on our plants outside. One day my friend Sandy came over with her bug powder. I hadn't the nerve to tell her, No. She sprinkled our cherry tree because it was loaded with them. Oh, well, I just let them be even though they destroy the looks of my plants that grow prolifically in my garden.

And then there are the lightning bugs. I first saw them when my uncle and grandmother took me to Missouri when I was 16 years old. I caught a couple of them and put them in a jar to take back to California. They died on the way home. I saw them again at Disneyland's Pirate's Cove and sat in a restaurant that opens up to the Cove and watched these little tiny fake lightning bugs. We have them here, but for a long time, due to our spraying for ticks, the kind that gave us Lyme disease, we didn't see them. We quit spaying, and now they are back.

I always thought of buying guinea hens to eat the ticks, but my husband thinks that they are too noisy.

And we have the dreaded mosquito here, and a friend of mine ended up with West Nile Fever. We found some mosquito traps that only draw mosquitoes to it, and they really work. They are bags with something in them to draw them to it, and you fill then with water. I would never ever put up those zap taps, as I call them.

And so that is almost all the knowledge that I have of insects.

[Lorellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't get over these illustrations, what a great Little Free Library find. Tot is also into it.

[Robert Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

so the main character in this book are bugs i think and things get a little crazy

they spend way too much time world building and introducing characters but not much on story

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure this is a good field guide, but if you want to fascinate a kid, this is it. I probably read this 100 times as a child.

I showed the page on ant lions to a dozen kids in a nature class I was leading last year, and told them about the glorious time I actually saw some, and they were spellbound.

[Ed C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thrifted this book for $2. I thought it would be a cute reference for different kinds of bugs and it was just that. A very simple to read basic explanation on insects and some of the species. The art is all drawn and its beautiful. Definitely a nice pick up if youre into that kind of stuff. Three stars for being kind of short and basic.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter loves this book!

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s good for what it is

[Ziggy彡✷ · Rating 5 out of 5]

genuinely why is this on Goodreads and also my autistic ass has read the whole thing like three times

[Jakob · Rating 5 out of 5]

The purpose of A Guide to Familiar American Insects is to inform. The purpose is made quite clear by the fact that this is a field guide. The theme of insects is the constant need for more information about the most abundant class on land. Zim and Cottam have put together an amazing exposition which has expanded greatly my knowledge of many types of insects. This is one of the best books I have read all school year. I appreciated that many of the larvae were labeled along with their adult forms; however, I did not appreciate the times when insects were partially described without illustrations. If i could change anything about the book, arachnids in general would be mentioned instead of only spiders and scorpions separately. This book does not remind me of anything I have read previously.

[Brian Hutzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 7th grade Life Science class, we had to make insect collections. I really go into the project. When I turned mine in, the teacher said it was the most thorough student collection she’d ever had from one of her students—quite a proud day for me! Throughout the collection process, my Go To books were Golden Nature Guides Insects and Butterflies and Moths. I’m happy to see that some of the books in this series have been revised and updated. It is fun to revisit them after all these years!

[R.A. Danger · Rating 4 out of 5]

225 insects from the walking stick to the German cockroach. On some insects all their stages are shown on others just male and female are shown. Some maps of where they use to live and two rulers in back (one cm the other in inches).

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic guide. I am not a bug person AT ALL, but as a child this was fascinating and always provided identification and answers that relieved my mind. Also it was horrifying as well as reassuring to see the crazy stuff that's native outside my region!

[Lafcadio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like all Golden Guides, it is way too small a volume for the geographic area covered. Useful as a way to accumulate random knowledge, not useful as a practical field guide.

[Dad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for studying insects and for collecting them. I have scanned these pages countless hours and I have my science students use it too.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zim has put together a small encyclopedia of insects with descriptions and colored illustrations. It is very suitable for young readers.

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good simple introduction. Most common insects listed.

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

For their size and compression of info, the Golden Nature Guides are truly little gems with really good illustrations. You can't go wrong starting here.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a big bug phase. This one taught me a lot.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good field guide to insects for younger readers.

[North Tonawanda Children's Department]

9781582381299