Showing 1–12 of 24 results
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Dragonflies and Damselflies of New Zealand
Artist/Author: Marinov, Milen, Mike Ashbee$57.00 Add to cartDragonflies and damselflies are among the most spectacular organisms on the planet. They have survived on earth for more than 325 million years, through a series of mass extinctions, by being exquisite examples of evolutionary adaptation: superb flyers with extraordinary vision and startling colours. This is a natural history and field guide to New Zealand’s 14 species of dragonflies and damselflies. Easy to observe around wetlands and rivers, dragonflies and damselflies are favourites of New Zealand nature lovers, and this book will be too.
Key features include:
– Expert and up-to-date information on the 14 species breeding in New Zealand.
– Natural history of the group including an introduction to evolution, habitats, biology, behaviour, photography and conservation.
– More than 200 new photographs and hand-drawn illustrations of dragonflies and damselflies at all life stages in their environment.
– Authoritative text on each species covering identification, measurement, behaviour, breeding, flying period and where to observe the species.
– Range maps for all species. -
A Field Guide to Insects in Australia (Fourth Edition)
Artist/Author: Zborowski, Paul and Ross Storey$40.00 Add to cartIdentifies insects from all the major insect groups
Whether you’re an amateur insect enthusiast, a student or an entomologist, this completely revised new edition of A Field Guide to Insects in Australia will help you to identify insects from all the major groups. With more photographs, species and up-to-date information, it will enable you to differentiate between a dragonfly and a damselfly or a cricket and a grasshopper. You’ll find cockroaches, termites, praying mantises, beetles, cicadas, moths, butterflies, ants, bees and many more. More than 600 colour photographs show the insects in their natural habitats, while more than 50 line drawings clearly illustrate the differences where identification is tricky.
Paul Zborowski is an entomologist and photographer based in Canberra. He has studied and photographed insect behaviour around the world and now concentrates on maintaining a macro photo collection which can be visited at www.close-up-photolibrary.com. Paul has revised this edition and continued the legacy of his esteemed friend and colleague, Ross Storey.
Ross Storey spent most of his professional life studying, collecting and curating insects for the University of Queensland and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. He described many new species and wrote scientific papers, especially on native dung beetles, on which he is a recognised world authority. Before his death in 2008, he worked as a taxonomist and curator of the QDPI’s Mareeba insect collection, one of Australia’s premier collections of tropical insects.
Identifies insects from all the major insect groups.
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Our Friends the Termites
Artist/Author: Lowe, Pat.$27.00 Add to cartAn intriguing journey into the micro-world of one of the most maligned creatures on the planet, the termite. After years of keen observation in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, Pat Lowe shows that there is more to these industrious insects than their propensity to eat houses and furniture. Termites are the earthworms of the tropics, providing nutrients to arid soils. They have been an important food for people and other animals throughout the centuries, and their nests have been used in many human endeavours. Our Friends the Termites will enlighten anyone who has travelled through northern Australia and wondered at the strange mounds that dot the landscape. It is a fascinating and delightful read for backyard naturalists, entomologists and the simply curious.
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A manual for the identification of the Dragonflies and Damselflies of New Guinea, Maluku, and the Solomon Islands.
Artist/Author: Michalski, John.$180.00 Add to cartThe first comprehensive guide to all 620 species of dragonflies of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands, which is home to ten percent of the worlds dragonfly fauna. Nearly half of the species are found nowhere else on Earth. The book includes 1275 illustrations and eight pages of color plates showing representative species and habitats, introductory sections on structure, habitat, history, collection and photography, as well as appendices discussing taxonomic questions and a full bibliography. Also included are illustrated keys to all taxa, and illustrations of larval forms where known.
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A Guide to the Cockroaches of Australia
Artist/Author: Rentz, David.$50.00 Read moreOUT OF PRINT. Cockroaches! Even a mere mention of the word causes many people to recoil in horror. However, of the hundreds of species of cockroaches (or blattodeans as they are known) found in Australia, only a small number of them give the group a bad name. Just a few species that are commonly found in homes, restaurants and hospitals are responsible for thousands of dollars in expenditure to comply with health standards.
A Guide to the Cockroaches of Australia is a comprehensive account of most of the 550 described species found in Australia. The book reveals their diversity and beauty, it looks in detail at their morphology, habitats and ecology, and explains how to collect and preserve them. Importantly, it will allow pest controllers, students and researchers to reliably identify most of the common pest species as well as the non-pest cockroaches. It will also, perhaps, go some way towards elevating the reputation of these much-maligned insects, and promote further study of them.
High quality photographs of most commonly encountered species and illustrated keys allow users to make a reasonable identification of known species or direct them to the relevant literature to do so. Provides a guide to collection, preservation and storage of cockroach specimens for future study. Outlines techniques of wing preservation and genitalic dissection, so critically important in reliable cockroach identification.
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Dragonflight: in search of Britain’s dragonflies and damselflies.
Artist/Author: Taylor, Marianne.$35.00 Add to cartThis book is an account of two years spent getting to know Britain’s most dazzling and enigmatic insects – the dragonflies and damselflies. The quest to find, photograph, watch and learn about dragons and damsels took the author on a tour of diverse and lovely wetlands up and down Britain, from the rugged wild peat bogs of north-west Scotland to the languid meanders of the Oxfordshire Thames. The account describes close encounters with the dragons and damsels themselves, set against backdrops of rich and vital habitats teeming with a range of other wildlife. It is also packed with background detail on dragonfly and damselfly natural history, and wetland ecology in general. The text is enlivened with line drawings and a section of colour photographs.
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Dragonfly.
Artist/Author: Chandler, David and Steve Cham.$30.00 Add to cartSupremely colourful, among the most voracious predators of the insect world and on the wing for more than 300 million years, dragonflies and damselflies capture the imagination in so many ways. Yet many aspects of their fascinating lives are little-known to humans. This book provides an insight into a hidden world through engaging text and stunning close-up photography. This book combines insightful writing with rarely seen images of the life and behaviour of the world’s dragonfly and damselfly species. There are chapters on subjects such as hunting, courtship and the emergence of the nymphs and their subsequent transformation into adult dragonflies. These insects are further brought to life through the personal experiences of the author and photographers, and these are woven into the text.
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Flies: A Natural History and Diversity of Diptera
Artist/Author: Marshall, Stephen A.$150.00 Add to cartMeticulously researched and illustrated with more than 2000 colour photographs taken by the author, this is landmark reference book will be indispensable to any naturalist, biologist or entomologist. Most photographs in this encyclopedic reference were taken in the field and show the insects in their natural environment. All of the world fly families are covered and the book contains species such as the common house fly, the elusive African stalk eyed flies and giant robber flies of North Vietnam, the strikingly beautiful Andean flower flies and giant hedgehog flies, to the deadly tsetse flies and malaria mosquitoes. Flies is broken up into three parts: Life Histories, Habits and Habitats of Flies; Diversity; and Identifying and Studying Flies. The 20 pages of profusely illustrated keys linked to the unprecedented photographic coverage of the world’s fly families and subfamilies enable the reader to identify most flies quickly and accurately, and to readily access information about each family as well as hundreds of distinctive genera and species.
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Grasshoppers and Crickets
Artist/Author: Benton, Ted.$90.00 Read moreOUT OF STOCK INDEFINITELY. New Naturalist 120. A detailed and up-to-date account of the behaviour and ecology of grasshoppers and crickets. In this latest New Naturalist volume, Ted Benton offers a comprehensive account of the appearance, variations, behaviour, habitat, life-cycles and distribution of all the native British species of bush-crickets, crickets, groundhoppers and grasshoppers. Many details from direct field observation are included, which are published here for the first time. With up-to-date information on newly arrived and recently established species, as well as long-established non-native species — such as the house cricket and greenhouse camel cricket — Benton pays special attention to a key area of evolutionary thought that has stimulated an international research focus on grasshoppers and crickets. Recent approaches to mating and reproduction emphasise differences and even conflicts of interest between males and females.
The sexually selected adaptations and counter-adaptations to such conflicts of reproductive interest are used to explain the astonishing diversity of reproductive behaviour exhibited by grasshoppers and crickets: male territorial behaviour, coercive mating, complex songs, elaborate courtship performances, the donation of edible ‘nuptial gifts’, the reversal of sex-roles, mate-guarding, keeping of ‘harems’ and, in a few species, parental care of the offspring. These chapters provide an introduction to the theoretical issues and an overview of many case studies drawn from research on orthopterans from across the world (but including British species where relevant). A unique DVD features many aspects of the behaviour of nearly all British species, including song, conflict, courtship behaviour, sex-role reversal and egg laying. The book is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs and line drawings, covering all the British species (including immature stages in most cases), key habitats and many aspects of behaviour. Also available in paperback [stock id 33718]. -
Honey Bees of Borneo: Exploring the Centre of Apis Diversity.
Artist/Author: Koeniger, Nikolaus, Gudrun Koeniger and Salim Tingek.$65.00 Add to cartThis book is a reliable and fascinating guide to one of Borneo’s natural wonders – the diversity of honey bees, their intriguing societies and their adaptations to the complex tropical environment. An array of unique, spectacular photographs allow the reader to visit the giant honey bees (Apis dorsata) in the canopy of the highest Koompassia. Many aspects of Honey bee natural history and honey production are covered.
Contents –
1. Why study Honey bees in Borneo?
2. Single-mother families with cryptic fathers
3. Who is who in Honey bees?
4. Fossil ancestors and extant relatives of Honey bees
5. A phylogeny in spite of missing evidence
6. Tropical mobility
7. Mating behaviour of Honey bees and reproduction
8. Food communication
9. Food resources
10. Colony defence against predators and parasites: a natural balance
11. Traditional honey-gathering
12. Keeping Apis dorsata for honey production
13. Keeping Apis cerana for honey production
14. Importation of Apis mellifera to Borneo
15. Equal rights for Asian honey. -
Cockroaches: Ecology, Behavior, and Natural History
Artist/Author: Bell, William J., Louis M. Roth and Christine A. Nalepa.$167.00 Add to cartThe cockroach is truly an evolutionary wonder. This definitive volume provides a complete overview of suborder Blattaria, highlighting the diversity of these amazing insects in their natural environments. Beginning with a foreword by E. O. Wilson, the book explores the fascinating natural history and behaviour of cockroaches, describing their various colours, sizes, and shapes, as well as how they move on land, in water, and through the air. In addition to habitat use, diet, reproduction, and behaviour, “Cockroaches” covers aspects of cockroach biology, such as the relationship between cockroaches and microbes, termites as social cockroaches, and the ecological impact of the suborder. With over 100 illustrations, an expanded glossary, and an invaluable set of references, this work is destined to become the classic book on the Blattaria. Students and research entomologists can mine each chapter for new ideas, new perspectives, and new directions for future study.
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Britain’s Dragonflies: A Field Guide to the Damselflies and Dragonflies of Britain and Ireland
Artist/Author: Smallshire, Dave and Andy Swash.$35.00 Read moreOUT OF PRINT. Excellent and comprehensive photographic guide to the dragonflies and damselflies of Britain and Ireland, covering 44 breeding, 3 extinct, 10 vagrant and 6 potential vagrant species. Its 64 remarkable full colour photographic plates show all you need to identify the adults. There are sections on larval identification, biology, habitats, recording and conservation. The text covers the key identification features of each species during the egg, larval and adult stages, emphasising the differences between similar species, and includes information on behaviour, breeding habitat, population and conservation. Colour distribution maps and charts showing flight period accompany the text for each species.
