Showing 1–12 of 129 results
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Minibeasts with Jess French: Masses of Mindblowing Minibeast Facts
Artist/Author: French, Jess$25.00 Add to cartIn Minibeasts, Jess French looks at amazing invertebrates found all over the world, from bird-eating tarantulas to glow-in-the-dark scorpions, and from metre-long stick insects to bat-eating centipedes. Jess uses her vast knowledge and unparalled zeal for insects to dive headfirst into the breathtaking world of invertebrates and explore some of their unbelievable adaptations and evolution.
Fancy meeting a foot-long centipede or a spider the size of your dinner plate? With Jess’s help you can do just that from the safety of your sofa.
Discover how minibeasts mate, fight, hide, collaborate, evolve and survive in the most extreme of earth’s conditions. Learn about the exquisite and perfect co-evolution of nectar-drinking insects and the flowers they pollinate. Shudder at tales of wasps that turn their prey into zombie hosts and worms that eat their prey from the inside out. And marvel at the dedication of minibeast parents, from fathers who stop eating in order to dedicate all their time to fanning their eggs, to mothers sacrificing their bodies as a cannibalistic offering for their offspring’s first meal.
Let Jess’s exuberant text enlighten you on the fascinating and extreme world of the minibeast, revealing everything from firefly morse code to mid-flight kamikaze mating, all captured in superb detail through incredible photography.
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Australian Bryozoa Volume II: Taxonomy of Australian Families
Artist/Author: Cook, Patricia, Philip Bock, Dennis Gordon, Haylee Weaver (Editors)$240.00 Add to cartThe second of two volumes describing Australia’s 1200 known species of bryozoans.
Bryozoans are aquatic animals that form colonies of connected individuals. They take a variety of forms: some are bushy and moss-like, some are flat and encrusting and others resemble lace. Bryozoans are mostly marine, with species found in all oceans from sublittoral to abyssal depths, but freshwater species also exist. Some bryozoans are of concern as marine-fouling organisms and invasive species, while others show promise as sources of anticancer, antiviral and antifouling substances.
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Australian Bryozoa, Volume I: Biology, Ecology and Natural History
Artist/Author: Cook, Patricia, Philip Bock, Dennis Gordon, Haylee Weaver (Editors)$140.00 Add to cartThe first of two volumes describing Australia’s 1200 known species of bryozoans.
Bryozoans are aquatic animals that form colonies of connected individuals. They take a variety of forms: some are bushy and moss-like, some are flat and encrusting and others resemble lace. Bryozoans are mostly marine, with species found in all oceans from sublittoral to abyssal depths, but freshwater species also exist. Some bryozoans are of concern as marine-fouling organisms and invasive species, while others show promise as sources of anticancer, antiviral and antifouling substances.
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Where Corals Lie: A Natural and Cultural History
Artist/Author: Schick, J. Malcolm$80.00 Add to cartComing June 2018For millennia corals were a marine enigma confounding classification and occupying a space between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Ultimately their animal and symbiotic natures were recognized, and they remain the focus of intense fascination and research. The danger to seafarers posed by unseen underwater coral reefs led to their association with death and interment that has figured in literature, poetry, music and film. The bright redness of precious Mediterranean coral was associated with blood, including coral’s gory origin in European and Indian mythology, and its place in religion. Corals have long been prized as jewellery and ornament, and were a feature of many Kunstkammer collections during the Renaissance. Seen as ‘rainforests of the sea’, coral reefs have become greenly emblematic of fragile marine biodiversity, warning of human-driven global climate change.This book uniquely treats the many manifestations of corals in biology and geology; how diverse corals came to figure in art, expeditionary accounts, medicine, folklore, geopolitics, and international trade; and corals as builders of islands and protectors of coastlines, and as building materials themselves. Exceptionally illustrated with a wide range of natural history images, underwater photographs and fine art, this book provides a unique resource for all interested in ocean environments and the cultures that have flourished there. -
The Curious Life of Krill: A Conservation Story from the Bottom of the World
Artist/Author: Nicol, Stephen$40.00 Add to cartAn eminent krill scientist takes us on a journey through the dark, icy world of krill.
Krill. It’s a familiar word that conjures oceans, whales, and swimming crustaceans. Scientists say they are one of most abundant animals on the planet. But few can accurately describe krill or explain their ecological importance. Eminent krill scientist Stephen Nicol wants us to know more about these enigmatic creatures and how we can protect them as Antarctic ice melts. This engaging account takes us to the Southern Ocean to learn firsthand the difficulties and rewards of studying krill in their habitat. From his early education about the sex lives of krill in the Bay of Fundy to a krill tattoo gone awry, Nicol uses humor and personal stories to bring the biology and beauty of krill to life.
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Reed Concise Guide: Spiders of Australia
Artist/Author: Framenau, Volker W. and Melissa L. Thomas$15.00 Add to cart
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Green Guide: Seashells and Other Marine Molluscs of Australia
Artist/Author: Marsh, Nigel$19.00 Add to cartThis new title in New Holland’s award-winning Green Guides series investigates the ever-popular subject of Australia’s seashells and other marine molluscs, including squid, cuttlefish, octopus and ridiculously colourful nudibranchs. The structure of this book is similar to that of other titles in the series. Fact panels cover interesting aspects of the subject, including what these critters eat, where they live, how they reproduce, and why certain species pack a very poisonous punch, with some of the strongest toxins known in the animal kingdom. Meanwhile, identification spreads cover all the key species and families which occur around Australia, including the likes of cowries, cone shells, murex shells, giant cuttlefish, pyjama squid and blue-ringed octopus. The many beautiful images are taken from the author’s own collection, which has been built up over many decades, making it an entertaining and enlightening read for everyone.
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Amazing Arachnids
Artist/Author: Cowles, Jillian$90.00 Add to cartThe American Southwest is home to an extraordinary diversity of arachnids, from spitting spiders that squirt silk over their prey to scorpions that court one another with kissing and dancing. Amazing Arachnids presents these enigmatic creatures as you have never seen them before. Featuring a wealth of color photos of more than 300 different kinds of arachnids (including new ones to science) from eleven taxonomic orders–both rare and common species—this stunningly illustrated book reveals the secret lives of arachnids in breathtaking detail, including never-before-seen images of their underground behavior.Amazing Arachnids covers all aspects of arachnid biology, such as anatomy, sociality, mimicry, camouflage, and venoms. You will meet bolas spiders that lure their victims with fake moth pheromones, fishing spiders that woo their mates with silk-wrapped gifts, chivalrous cellar spiders, tiny mites, and massive tarantulas, as well as many others. Along the way, you will learn why arachnids are living fossils in some respects and nimble opportunists in others, and how natural selection has perfected their sensory structures, defense mechanisms, reproductive strategies, and hunting methods.Includes first-ever photos of the underground lives of schizomids and vinegaroons and describes every aspect of arachnid biology, from physiology to biogeography. As well it illustrates courtship and mating, birth, maternal care, hunting, and defense.This book provides the first organized guide to macroscopic mites, including photos of living mites for easy reference -
A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia
Artist/Author: Whyte, Robert and Greg Anderson.$50.00 Add to cartThis excellent field guide uses photographs of live animals to enable identification of commonly encountered spiders to the family level and, in some cases, to genus and species. Featuring over 1,300 colour photographs, it is the most comprehensive account of Australian spiders ever published. With more than two-thirds of Australian spiders yet to be scientifically described, this book sets the scene for future explorations of our extraordinary Australian fauna.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Robert Whyte is an honorary researcher in arachnology at the Queensland Museum. He is an accomplished editor, author and journalist, with skills in photography and publication design.
Greg Anderson is a biomedical research scientist and heads the Chronic Disorders Program at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane. He has travelled extensively around Australia and other parts of the world studying and photographing spiders.FEATURES
• Covers all known Australian spider families and illustrated with over 1300 stunning colour photographs
• Highly accurate and vetted by experts, it contains the most up-to-date taxonomy information. -
RSPB Gardening for Wildlife: A Complete Guide to Nature-friendly Gardening
Artist/Author: Adrian Thomas$50.00 Add to cartGardening for wildlife is hugely enjoyable. There is something uplifting about having butterflies in your flowerbeds, frogs in your water feature and birds in your bushes – and knowing that they’re here because of you. But if you want a ‘nice’ garden too, don’t worry! This new book busts the myths that wildlife gardens have to be ‘wild’, or that you can only garden for wildlife in a ‘wildlife garden’. You can easily fit in wildlife gardening alongside everything else you want from your garden. The secret is understanding the ‘home needs’ of your guests. Tap into their needs and you can create a five-star hotel for birds, bees, butterflies and more. As well as looking at a host of different species,
there are sections to help you create entire habitats, such as woodland and meadow gardens, and a catalogue of over 300 of the very best garden flowers, shrubs and trees for wildlife. So no matter how large or small your garden, whether it is formal or a family football pitch, there are all sorts of things you can do. If you love wildlife and want to encourage more, this inspirational book will help
you sow the seeds and reap the rewards. -
Jellyfish: a natural history.
Artist/Author: Gershwin, Lisa-Ann.$40.00 Add to cartJellyfish are mysterious creatures, luminously beautiful with remarkably varied life cycles. These simple, ancient animals are found in every ocean at every depth, and have lived on Earth for at least the last 500 million years. Ominously, they are also increasing in number as they adapt well to marine environmental degradation. Jellyfish is a timely title that looks at their anatomy, life history, taxonomy and ecology, and includes species profiles featuring stunning marine photography that will have you scanning the depths with renewed interest.
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A Naturalist’s Guide to the Butterflies and Dragonflies of Sri Lanka
Artist/Author: de Silva Wijeyeratne, Gehan.$28.00 Add to cartA compact and portable photographic guide to the 280 species of butterflies and dragonflies most likely to be encountered in Sri Lanka. It is also an excellent book for residents and visitors to learn about the commoner butterflies and dragonflies before progressing to more advanced technical books. The guide is focused on field use to help beginners and experts identify species and provides information on their distribution and habitats.
The book includes information on the key wildlife sites, general introductions to the biology of dragonflies and butterflies, up-to-date checklists with local status and useful references for people who wish to progress further with their study of these charismatic and photogenic animals.
