Spiders of the World: A Guide to Every Family

by Norman I. Platnick, Rudy Jocque (Contributor), Gustavo Hormiga (Contributor)

A stunningly illustrated natural history of spiders

Spiders are among the most versatile creatures on the planet, inhabiting six of the seven continents and thriving in environments ranging from deserts and rain forests to Arctic tundra and cities. Spiders of the World is a captivating look at these wondrously adaptable and endlessly intriguing arachnids, edited by one of the world's preeminent experts on spiders. This stunningly illustrated natural history features a wealth of spectacular color photos and covers a breathtaking array of spider species from around the globe, describing their behaviors, characteristics, and remarkable evolutionary adaptations. An incisive and engaging introduction provides an invaluable overview of the world's spiders, and is followed by in-depth profiles spanning more than 100 spider families and presented taxonomically. Each profile is organized phylogenetically and includes beautiful photography to illustrate various species within the family. There are also distribution maps, tables of essential facts, and commentaries highlighting diverse aspects of spider biology, making Spiders of the World an indispensable volume for anyone who wants to learn more about these marvelous creatures.



Provides a richly illustrated look at spiders of all shapes and sizes from around the world
Features hundreds of color photos and diagrams
Spans more than 100 spider families and covers an array of different species
Explores spider behavior, attributes, biology, and evolution
Includes distribution maps, tables of essential facts, informative commentaries, and more
Engages and educates readers about the unique natural history of spiders

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Science, Reference, Nature, Biology

240 pages, Hardcover

Published March 10, 2020

Reviews

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a Who's Who of the arachnid kingdom. In the introduction, we are told how typically the body of a spider looks, what all the bits and pieces are called, so we have common ground. Afterwards, we go along the rows of different families within this species, and get shown how to realise what kind of spider you just found in your bed, threatening to come closer than you really liked.

So, I wasn't sure how to put trigger warnings on this and in the end, decided against mentioning any. This book is about spiders. If you are afraid of spiders, don't want to know anything further about them, stay away. Okay? Okay.
I have to add that even though I don't have an arachnophobia, some of these pictures made me queasy, especially the electromicroscope ones because they remind me of the crawlies I have in my bed that make itch and sneeze.

A big plus this book has are the beautiful, high-resolution pictures. While most books work fine regardless of how you consume them, in this case I wouldn't recommend the ebook, as my device and my programm for reading it had some struggles with loading all those shiny pixels. Also, it would be easier with a physical copy to jump back and forth to look up things, and, ultimately, I don't think this is a book to be read like a story. It's more a reference book to look things up, and as such does what it sets out to do.
It proved to not be my cup of tea, but this is due to personal preferences and in no way reflects on the author's knowledge or ability to share it.
It just turned out that while I can happily read hundreds of pages about sharks, after 20 pages about arachnids I want a different topic.

Another problem I had is the language, which is the proper scientific one with Latin phrases. I found it not very accessible, especially as I have no great experience with the natural sciences and also am not an English native speaker.

This book is for you if you are a spider nerd that wants all there is to know about different families and how to spot the differences.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Ivy Press for a temporary digital edition via NetGalley of ‘Spiders of the World - a Natural History’ edited by Norman Platnick in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I am arachnophobic though recently have been trying to understand more about spiders in order to address my clearly irrational fear of them. As a result I requested this informative book to read and review.

Platnick is the editor and main contributor to this volume. He was a highly acclaimed arachnologist and recognised as a world leader in spider taxonomy, the science of describing, naming, and classifying spiders. Most of his publications to date have been scientific monographs.

This is a very detailed work that while written for a general audience provides a great deal of scientific information on spiders from all over the world. Following the Introduction, covering the natural history of spiders, is a catalogue providing 117 in-depth profiles spanning the taxonomic spider families.

Each profile is accompanied by photographs and small maps that indicate where each spider is found in the world, their behaviours, and other details. I found it fascinating to see how some spider species have a wide distribution, while others are confined to small areas of the planet. It concludes with a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an index.

I will admit that some of the photos did trigger fear responses especially some of the extreme closeups of spider faces, while others were quite cute.

There is no doubt that this is a brilliant guide to all things arachnid. I learned some fascinating things about spiders and it definitely increased my understanding of their roles in nature. Rather than feel fear, I marvelled at their complexity. A very important step in tackling my arachnophobia!

I would expect this attractive hardback would be of interest to anyone interested in spider taxonomy. It’s likely also to find a place in the natural history section of both school and public libraries.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book about the natural history of spiders. Packed full of information about spiders, it starts off with an introduction to what is a spider and what differentiates it from other spider-like organisms (like harvestmen, scorpions and so on). It then goes into some biology of spiders, then the classification of spiders.

The book then introduces some specific spiders from different families, describing their physical appearance and what we know about their behaviour (hunting, hiding, mating, etc.) and their geographical range.

Detailed pictures of the spiders are also provided, some of which are of spiders that are tiny: less than 1 mm in size. That might give you an idea of how dedicated some spider researcher must be, to seek out and try to understand such tiny organisms.

A good book to read to get to know some of the spiders in the world. General readers are free to skip over some of the more technical descriptions about spider anatomy and biology, which would interest those who want to know more about the spiders shown in the book.

[Anna Nesterovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many spiders!!! And so many cute spiders!!! I am inspired by this book to look even more closely and search for new spiders around me. Some of the ones that are supposed to be where I live (and I love that the book has maps) I've seen and about some of them I've never even heard of. So, I'm off on a spider searching quest.

There are some mistakes and discrepancies, but I won't go into them, and I'm giving the book five stars, because we all need more beautiful books about beautiful spiders.

[Constance Fastré · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most beautiful books about animals. The text is clear and (relatively) simple, the explanations are great, there are countless interesting facts about spiders and the photos are truly gorgeous! Whether you love spiders or you are just curious about the diversity of these fascinating creatures, this book is for you. I do think it is a little better to have a little background in spiders when you read it, so it is easier to remember the names of the families (I sometimes try to identify spiders I observe and it was definitely more fun being familiar with some of the families that were presented in the book). But this amazing book must not necessarily be read in its entirety, you can use it for learning about some families as you discover spiders in a more empirical way. Anyways, I advise this book to all spider-enthusiasts out there!
Note: I started reading it first in 2021, then got sidetracked by a severe depression for three years. I actually read this book in a few weeks only!

[Nicholas Sly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book packed with great photography. The introduction is very short and focused mainly on introducing spider anatomy. The vast majority of the book is then family accounts for each spider family, which actually focus on an example genus or two within each family. These accounts can meander a bit between talking about the characteristics of the family as a whole vs the example genera/species, and that can get confusing. I definitely would’ve preferred a more consistent introduction of family-level information before getting to the cool examples within each family. But overall this is a lovely surface-level look at a lot of spider diversity.

[Library Of Pangea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully laid out book, and a great way to introduce yourself to spider diversity and taxonomy. As I was reading this book, my friends toddler who is very afraid of spiders, decided they wanted me to read it to them. We used it to explore spiders and now they are absolutely fascinated by them.
So I would say this is great for all ages.
Although admittedly I skipped the parts about spider genitalia when they were around lol

[Clazzzer C · Rating 5 out of 5]

We lived this book. My kids are absolutely enthralled by it. My son went to bed with the ereader dying to learn more about these creatures. The detail in this book is top class. The photographs are superb and the knowledge that we will add to our collections once it’s all soaked in is mind blowing. We, but particularly my two sons, highly recommend this read!!!

[Dr. Lehman L Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. The images were wonderful and the family descriptions were very revealing. There were more families of these organisms than I realized and like the descriptions of the features that are used to organize the taxonomic organization. Good start for appreciating spiders.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

All photographs and some types of spiders I have never heard of before - but only a new pictures for each type. I understand that it was necessary due to space in the book, but some diversity in pictures for each spider would have made this a 5 star book.

Q2020 book
Jury Duty 2020 book.

[Andrea Samorini]

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FROM BOOK: Catalogo degli animali inestimabili (Katherine Rundell)

[0959kedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has very good drawings of spider anatomy and amazing pictures of spiders. Very good gift for spider lovers or people who wants to be spider lovers. But sometimes it's confusing about is the book talking about one genus or the entire family.

[Daniel Duarte]

Great guide for an introduction on spiders diversity an taxonomy. At level of family.

[Ronda Canary · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Mads Berberena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t look anywhere without knowing there is a spider there.