A fantastic first book on butterflies and moths, this is the perfect companion for bug hunters ages 6 and up eager to understand how caterpillars become butterflies.

Nature Explorer Butterflies and Moths encourages little explorers to get outside and covers everything you need to know about these critters, including cocoons, wings, caterpillars, and eggs. Children can learn about butterflies and moths from all over the world, from their very own gardens to woodland, mountains, rainforest, desert, and even the Arctic.

With exciting activities, like how to make a butterfly kite, and plenty of fun facts, this beautiful book is a must for children curious about butterflies and moths.

This engaging and easy-to-use natural history guidebook provides a thorough overview of native and honey bee biology and offers tools for identifying the most common bees of California and the Western United States. Full-color illustrations introduce readers to more than 30 genera of native bees, noting each one's needs and habits and placing them in their wider context. The author highlights beesOCO ties to our own lives, the food we eat, and the habitat we provide, and suggests ways to support bees in our own backyards.
In addition to helping readers understand and distinguish among major groups of bees, this guide reveals how bees are an essential part of healthy ecosystem and how many plants, including important crop plants, depend on the pollination they provide. As growing evidence points to declining bee populations, this book offers critical information about the bond between plants and pollinators, and between humans and nature. Thoroughly researched and full of new insights into the ancient process of pollination, " Field Guide to the Common Bees of California; Including Bees of the Western United States" is invaluable for the window it opens onto the biodiversity, adaptive range, and complexity of invertebrate communities.
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Bed bugs. Few words strike such fear in the minds of travelers. In cities around the world, lurking beneath the lofty blankets of otherwise pristine-looking hotel beds are tiny bloodthirsty beasts just waiting for weary wanderers to surrender to a vulnerable slumber. Though bed bugs today have infested the globe, the common bed bug is not a new pest at all. Indeed, as Brooke Borel reveals in this unusual history, this most-reviled species may date back over 250,000 years, wreaking havoc on our collective psyche while even inspiring art, literature, and music - in addition to vexatious red welts. In Infested, Borel introduces readers to the biological and cultural histories of these amazingly adaptive insects, and the myriad ways in which humans have responded to them. She travels to meet with scientists who are rearing bed bug colonies - even by feeding them with their own blood (ouch!) - and to the stages of musicals performed in honor of the pests. She explores the history of bed bugs and their apparent disappearance in the 1950s after the introduction of DDT, charting how current infestations have flourished in direct response to human chemical use as well as the ease of global travel. She also introduces us to the economics of bed bug infestations, from hotels to homes to office buildings, and the expansive industry that has arisen to combat them. Hiding during the day in the nooks and seams of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, wallpaper, or any other clutter around a bed, bed bugs are thriving and eager for their next victim. By providing fascinating details on bed bug science and behavior as well as a captivating look into the lives of those devoted to researching or eradicating them, Infested is sure to inspire at least a nibble of respect for these tenacious creatures - while also ensuring that you will peek beneath the sheets with prickly apprehension.

Whiteflies are one of the major insect pests of greenhouse production systems worldwide, feeding on a wide-range of greenhouse-grown horticultural crops. Whiteflies cause both direct damage by feeding on plant parts such as leaves as well as indirect damage by vectoring certain plant viral and bacterial diseases. In addition, since whiteflies feed within the phloem sieve tubes with their piercing-sucking mouthparts, they may excrete honeydew, a clear, sticky liquid that serves as a growing medium/food source for certain black sooty mould fungi. This book examines the biological control of whiteflies as well as aphids, which are serious pests of agricultural crops, particularly in cereal crops including winter wheat. Aphids induce stress to the wheat crop by damaging plant foliage, lowering the greenness of plants, and affecting productivity. Therefore, it is very important to monitor and prevent effectively wheat aphid for crop management. Additional chapters provide remote sensing data on aphid monitoring and prediction; and changes in the distribution of Russian wheat aphid biotypes in South Africa.

A compact guide covering everything you need to know about insects of the UK. This pocket-sized book is an essential guide to insects, helping you to identify around 240 of the most easily noticed British species selected from a range of orders and families. The introduction covers the characteristics of an insect, where to find them as well as the conservation work in demand around the world, then entries on each species are divided into simple sections covering general information followed by its flight period, habitat and similar species. As visually impressive as it is useful in the field, Pocket Guide to Insects features many stunning full-page and double-page images supporting the authoritative text. Part of the Pocket Guides series covering British and European wildlife, including garden birds, butterflies, mushrooms, wild flowers, trees and shrubs and tracks and signs.

As we follow the path of a giant water bug or peer over the wing of a gypsy moth, we glimpse our world anew, at once shrunk and magnified. Owing to their size alone, insects' experience of the world is radically different from ours. Air to them is as viscous as water to us. The predicament of size, along with the dizzying diversity of insects and their status as arguably the most successful organisms on earth, have inspired passion and eloquence in some of the world's most innovative scientists. A World of Insects showcases classic works on insect behavior, physiology, and ecology published over half a century by Harvard University Press. James Costa, Vincent Dethier, Thomas Eisner, Lee Goff, Bernd Heinrich, Bert Hoelldobler, Kenneth Roeder, Andrew Ross, Thomas Seeley, Karl von Frisch, Gilbert Waldbauer, E. O. Wilson, and Mark Winston-each writer, in his unique voice, paints a close-up portrait of the ways insects explore their environment, outmaneuver their enemies, mate, and care for kin. Selected by two world-class entomologists, these essays offer compelling descriptions of insect cooperation and warfare, the search for ancient insect DNA in amber, and the energy economics of hot-blooded insects. They also discuss the impact-for good and ill-of insects on our food supply, their role in crime scene investigation, and the popular fascination with pheromones, killer bees, and fire ants. Each entry begins with commentary on the authors, their topics, and the latest research in the field.

"A book that will both educate and delight anyone who wants to know more about these fascinating insects. Packed with facts but written in a straightforward style, the book makes California's 108 dragonfly and damselfly species easily accessible. . . . It will engender a renewed appreciation of the value of our wetlands."--Dennis Paulson, author of "Dragonflies of Washington

"This is now the book on all the California Odonates and should ride in the pack of every naturalist, butterflier, and birder in the American west."--Rich Stallcup, Point Reyes Bird Observatory

On any warm summer day, you can easily observe damselflies around a vegetated pond or the rocks along the banks of a stream. Like the more familiar dragonfly, damselflies are among the most remarkably distinctive insects in their appearance and biology, and they have become one of the most popular creatures sought by avocational naturalists.

Damselflies of Texas is the first field guide dedicated specifically to the species found in Texas. It covers 77 of the 138 species of damselflies known in North America, making it a very useful guide for the entire United States. Each species account includes: illustrations of as many forms (male, female, juvenile, mature, and color morphs) as possiblecommon and scientific names, with pronunciationdistribution mapkey featuresidentifying characteristicsdiscussion of similar speciesstatus in Texashabitat, seasonality, and general comments

In addition to photographing damselflies in the wild, the author and illustrator have developed a new process for illustrating each species by scanning preserved specimens and digitally painting them. The resulting illustrations show detail that is not visible in photographs. The book also contains chapters on damselfly anatomy, life history, conservation, names, and photography, as well as a list of species that may eventually be discovered in Texas, state and global conservation rankings, seasonality of all species in chronological order, and additional resources and publications on the identification of damselflies.

This title offers everything you ever wanted to know about the biology, rearing and breeding of queen bees. Divided into three major chapters with many sub-sections, "Queen Bee" is a definitive guide to the biology and breeding of queen bees. It includes: Chapter One - Queen Bee Biology, Introduction, Castes, Anatomy & Lifecycle, Reproduction, Castes, Development, Egg Laying, Pheromones, and Diseases; Chapter Two - Queen Bee Rearing Equipment, Grafting & non-Grafting, Capture & Transport, Swarming & Nucleus Hives, and Nutrition; and, Chapter Three - Queen Bee Breeding, Genetics & Reprduction, Stock Selection & Improvement, Breeding Programmes, Instrumental Insemination, and Glossary.

Why do bees buzz? How do they breathe? What is a 'waggle dance'? And just what happens if they run out of honey? Twenty-five thousand species of bees certainly create a loud buzz. Yet silence descended a few years ago when domesticated bee populations plummeted. Bees, in particular honey bees, are critical links in the vibrant chain that brings fruits, vegetables, and nuts to markets and dinner tables across the country. Farmers and scientists on the agricultural frontlines quickly realized the impact of this loss, but many others did not see this devastation. ""Why Do Bees Buzz?"" reports on the mysterious 'colony collapse disorder' that has affected honey bee populations, as well as other captivating topics, such as their complex, highly social lives, and how other species of bees are unique and different from honey bees. Organized in chapters that cover everything from these provocative pollinators' basic biology to the aggressive nature of killer bees, this insightful question and answer guide provides a honeycomb of compelling facts. With clarity and depth, bee biologist Elizabeth Capaldi Evans and coauthor Carol A. Butler examine the lives of honey bees, as well as other species such as orchid bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees. Accessible to readers on every level, and including the latest research and theory for the more sophisticated reader, the authors reveal more than one hundred critical answers to questions about the lives of bees. Concepts about speciation, evolutionary adaptation and pollination, as well as historical details about topics such as Mayan beekeeping and the appearance of bees in rock art, are arranged in easy-to-follow sidebars that highlight the text. Color and black and white photographs and drawings enhance the beauty and usefulness of ""Why Do Bees Buzz""?

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, natural and social scientists began comparing certain insects to human social organization. Entomologists theorized that social insects -- such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites -- organize themselves into highly specialized, hierarchical divisions of labor. Using a distinctly human vocabulary that reflected the dominant social structure of the time, they described insects as queens, workers, and soldiers and categorized their behaviors with words like marriage, slavery, farming, and factories. At the same time, sociologists working to develop a model for human organization compared people to insects, relying on the same premise that humans arrange themselves hierarchically. In Debugging the Link between Social Theory and Social Insects, Diane M. Rodgers explains how these co-constructed theories reinforced one another, thereby naturalizing Western conceptions of race, class, and gender as they gained prominence in popular culture and the scientific world.

Using a critical science studies perspective not previously applied to research on social insect symbolism, Rodgers attempts to "debug" this theoretical co-construction. She provides sufficient background information to accommodate readers unfamiliar with entomology -- including in-depth explanations of the terms used in the research and discussion of social insects, particularly the insect sociality scale. The entire premise of sociality for insects depends on a dominant understanding of high/low civilization standards -- particularly the tenets of a specialized division of labor and hierarchy -- comparisons that appear to be informed by nineteenth-century colonial thought. Placing these theories in a historical and cross-cultural context, Rodgers explains why hierarchical ideas gained prominence, despite the existence of opposing theories in the literature, and how they resulted in an inhibiting vocabulary that relies more heavily on metaphors than on description.

Such analysis is necessary, Rodgers argues, because it sheds light both on newly proposed scientific models and on future changes in human social structures. Contemporary scientists have begun to challenge the traditional understanding of insect social organization and to propose new interdisciplinary models that combine ideas about social insect and human organizational structure with computer technologies. Without a thorough understanding of how the old models came about, residual language and embedded assumptions may remain and continue to reinforce hierarchical social constructions.

This intriguing interdisciplinary book makes an important contribution to the history -- and future -- of science and sociology.

From fossils and folklore to life cycles and the latest in digital imaging techniques, A Dazzle of Dragonflies will take you into the far-reaching and sometimes secret world of one of our most beneficial insects. The guides are two of the most experienced and ardent fans of the ""mosquitohawk,"" and your journey will include encounters with poets and prehistoric giants; peeks into hidden, watery universes; side trips to garden ponds and scientific laboratories; and much more. Pioneers in the electronic imaging of insects and creators of the award-winning website Digital Dragonflies, the authors share their spectacular scans of live dragonflies, enhanced with beautiful photographs that showcase them in their natural environment. Imparting a lifelong passion for these remarkable creatures, the authors also ask us to join them in some hands-on activities to increase our awareness of and interaction with dragonflies - from tips on creating a dragonfly garden to instructions for catching, photographing, and scanning them. Get ready to have your eyes opened by this true education about all things ""dragonfly.

Combines current data and taxonomic classifications for tiger beetles in the Southeast with stunning close-up photographs, flight season charts, and distribution maps. Tiger beetles are brightly colored and metallic beetles, often with ivory or cream-colored markings. They are most abundant and diverse in habitats near bodies of water with sandy or clay soils and can be found along rivers, on sea and lake shores, on sand dunes, around dry lakebeds, on clay banks, or on woodland paths. Conservatively estimated, the group comprises more than 2,600 species worldwide. Tiger Beetles of the Southeastern United States identifies and describes 52 taxa (42 species and 10 additional subspecies) of tiger beetles that occur in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Stunning close-up photographs accompany current taxonomic and biological information in a volume designed for a growing audience of enthusiastic amateurs and professionals alike. The authors provide an in-depth description of the anatomy, life cycle, and behavior of tiger beetles; an overview of the various southeastern habitats in which they occur; instructions for finding, identifying, and photographing them in the wild; and the conservation status of various species. The individual species accounts include stunning, detailed images, flight season charts, county-level regional distribution maps, and discussion of identifying features, habitat, similar species, and subspecies when applicable. The appendix includes two species previously found in Florida but no longer known to exist there. The result is the most complete field guide to date on tiger beetles in the region. With more than 230 images of beetles and their habitats, as well as life history and distribution data, this book is essential for tiger beetle enthusiasts, naturalists of all kinds, photographers, biologists, and teachers throughout the region.

With over 40,000 described species, spiders have adapted to nearly every terrestrial environment across the globe. Over half of the worldOCOs spider families live within the three contiguous Pacific Coast statesOConot surprising considering the wide variety of habitats, from mountain meadows and desert dunes to redwood forests and massive urban centers. This beautifully illustrated, accessible guide covers all of the families and many of the genera found along the Pacific Coast, including introduced species and common garden spiders. The author provides readers with tools for identifying many of the regionOCOs spiders to family, and when possible, genus and species. He discusses taxonomy, distribution, and natural history as well as what is known of the habits of the spiders, the characters of families, and references to taxonomic revisions of the pertinent genera. Full-color plates for each family bring to life the incredible diversity of this ancient arachnid order."