The Private Life of Spiders

by Paul Hillyard

With more than 100 different families and 40,000 individual species, spiders are among the most successful creatures on Earth. Highly adaptable, they live almost everywhere, from equatorial rainforest to Arctic tundra. And they come in a huge range of shapes and sizes, from the tiny Patu digua , measuring less than half a millimeter, to the immense bird-eating tarantula, which can reach a span of eleven inches. In The Private Life of Spiders , spider expert Paul Hillyard takes the reader on a fascinating and richly illustrated tour of the lives of some of the world's most remarkable spiders.

The Private Life of Spiders reveals the intriguing behaviors of these complex creatures, from their extraordinary web-spinning skills and hunting strategies to their courtship displays and devoted care for their young. The book also describes other surprising skills of some spiders, such as the ability to cross vast stretches of open water.

Written in an engaging style, The Private Life of Spiders also looks at why people are scared of spiders, explains why such fear is generally misplaced, and shows why more needs to be done to protect endangered spiders.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Biology, Animals

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2007

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nocturnal spiders, daydream beasties. Come into my shining, the spider says to the spider. If you took a boat to the moon they would follow before your nightmare. When a volcano makes a desert island to hide for you they are there first. Okay, I knew some of this stuff and some of it I didn't. But it's my new favorite that spiders sense a new place. The biologist investigating Krakatoa in 1883 found only a spider. I wish they had landed on the moon first. Eight legs chasing two legs, shivering heads in suspension. I'm going to start my own planet, fuck all these bloodsuckers. It's the dream of there's no one left. Before they ruin it with the middle and the end and how do we keep all the shit going. Millions of spiders, eight times millions of legs. Less heads than that. I can't wrap my head around the divide. Some spiders are orb-spinners, some go Laura Ingalls Wilder in the ground. A trap door to keep the predators out. There are spiders who live off the backs of other spiders. The mating chapter depressed me. I didn't like Paul Hillyard much for rejoicing in an instance when the males subjugated the female spiders.... Sure, they often eat their mates. But the spider rape, male spiders grooming juvenile females. I don't get rooting for male spiders over female ones. (I don't get rooting at all. It's the best part to get mixed up for the spiders and their prey, spiders as prey. Wasps controlling spider's mind with their bites. The spider is the wasp's Renfield, a helpless automaton. Webbing for the wasp. How can it be anything like taking sides?) I wouldn't want to be either one. I have always had that feeling about repressive sexist societies that once you were past the age of three the life you lived for yourself was pretty much over. I feel a little of that about spiders, that their bodies betray them to procreate and eat every day under the sun. But then there are the differences. Some spiders say "fuck it" and don't build a few webs each day. Why not just.... that web over there.... Maybe swing the fates a little that way for the next guy. Maybe if evolution is doing them wrong then maybe they'll have to live through the next spider. But I get lost in the millions and thousands and the numbers thrown at the wall and scuttling with the lights off beam. There's a bird-dropping spider in Africa that camouflages as bird poop. Is there some genetic sense of humor in this? The ant-spider goes so far in mimicking the ant that I could totally see one going all Donnie Brasco in-too-deep undercover. I love these details in camouflage in spiders and insects. It's like they are making art with their own bodies. Art as life because it had to happen. The spider's have their webs too. Much of this book is focused on the webs. In my spider wonderings it isn't usually the webs that interest me as much so a lot of it was new to me. They are beautiful, an alternate world rainbow. If you are in the right stolen light through trees they glow white and deathly. It's one of my calming strategies when I feel make-my-own-planet to go into the woods in search of spider's webs. I liked a lot looking at the full color photographs in this book too, though nothing is as good as staring at ants and spiders and wonderful creepy crawlies until they look big, alien to what you thought you saw. Evolution in the eyes. Changing in between space. I'm happy to have the Finland spider who navigates by the sun.... I don't know what it means that is more than evolution sides but there's something in that. Millions, in the beginning. Spiders inside buildings will take back museum evolution, devouring specimens on needles.

[Nicholas Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging primer that broadly treats the diversity of life histories in spiders, including web types, hunting strategies, and reproduction. Lots of great photos. However, a brief section on the evolution of sociality belies an evidently confused understanding of how natural selection operates; he later also gives credence to a discredited view of inheritance, seemingly attributing arachnophobia to the “memory” of events in the Middle Ages being passed down genetically(?!). When it comes to the spiders themselves, author’s deep knowledge of this group appeared beyond question (he was, after all, curator at London’s Natural History Museum), but slip-ups like those mentioned above do make me wonder.

[Lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good reminder of how cool spiders are. This had a ton of amazing facts. Page after page of fantastic information about how strange and complex spiders are, accompanied by gorgeous, glossy photos.

The chapters are laid out well, and it never felt like an overwhelming amount of info. The author says near the end that he wrote this because he wants to get people excited by spiders so people will concentrate on conservation efforts towards them (at the time of his writing, at least, there were none going on despite many spiders having their habitats destroyed), and he certainly achieved that with me: I'm extremely excited about spiders. I was before, but not quite as much as I am now.

[nEWS Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Paul Hillyard to writing about Arachnophobia treatment to my attention. The topic is very useful for me.

[Gabriel Davis]

07/19/19

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked out this book from our library because I'm currently painting a series on the five senses. After a little research I chose the spider to represent the sense of touch but not without a little dread. I find spiders to be creepy, ugly, grotesque little monsters even though I am in love with their webs-they are so much fun to draw. So Hillyards book was shoved into the bag and I steeled my nerves. The photos are absolutely stunning! I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a naturalistic spidery settings.

[Tony duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great book on nature.

Spiders are one fo the most amazing families of animals. Once again this explores the amazing adaptations that evolution has found in order to exploit and survive.

The chapter on how male spiders develop ways to outsmart the femals just so they can live long enough to mate is incredible. And the pictures are amazing

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty interesting read where else are you going to learn that once upon a time in China they built little straw huts by rice patties for spiders to overwinter in so that they could be ready to defend the rice come spring. Oh, yeah and the fact that Black Widow venom causes your eyes to swell up...

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book such a great read. Learned a lot by reading this book. Such a great read on spiders the different ones that live all over the world. There are tons of different species of spiders some small some big. Some nice some not so nice. But a great read.

[Namrirru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spiders for everyone! It's a really easy read, full of interesting and wild anecdotes and great pictures. I ordered it from a university catalogue thinking it would be more academic, but it turned out out to be something akin to a coffee table book. But it's ok. I always have Rainer Foelix.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arachnophobes, beware! You all might want to hake everything good about this review and reverse it, but you knew that already.

It's informative with beautiful pictures. However, the many random hyphenations and sans-serif kerning really brought the experience down.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my uncle's books!

[Kayla Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting... who knew spiders were so intelligent!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable. The "ick" factor was not high and the picture were quality.

[Mark Nenadov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good coffee-table-book-style introduction to spiders. The photography in here is stunning.