Common Spiders of North America

Rich Bradley has been the Ohio Spiderman for many years, exploring the woods and meadows all over the state day-and-night over all of his career. He wrote this book not as a professor (which he is) but as a true spider enthusiast who knows them all by experience. He is able to convey his enthusiasm for spiders to readers thru his books and blogs. The book is well organized and easy to follow. It covers all of the North American spiders, not just Ohio. The drawings are amazing. A very high quality book, excellently printed. I highly recommend it.

This book is very informative and great for spider identification.

It has detailed pictures which makes identifying spiders easy.

This is my absolute favorite guide. All of the illustrations are accurate, detailed, and beautiful. It’s difficult to find spider field guides that make it easy to identify the species, especially when they include illustrations, rather than real photos. I have never had a problem identifying a species from this one. Such a lovely book.

Received this book about a week ago and was immediately impressed by the excellent color drawings from Steve Buchanan. According to the back cover "This book is designed to be used.............from backyard naturalist to scientist" and strives to "...simplify the identification of spiders based on a few features of their body and behavior."( p. 31). Accordingly, it starts with an introduction to spider behavior, silk production and use, anatomy, prey catching methods and much more. Dichotomous keys are presented to identify spider families by their webs. To do this in the field one has to take the book along which weighs 2lb and 10oz and does not easily fit into a pocket with its 7 x 10 1/4 inches. Some of the other criteria used to identify spider families are the number and arrangement of eyes (p. 31), the number and arrangement of the spinnerets (p. 32). Even the author admits that some of these structures may not always be easily observed with a hand magnifier provided the spider cooperates. 469 species of spiders are depicted in outstanding drawings contained in 82 plates. This sounds like a lot, however considering the vast area covered - all of North America with the exception of Mexico - with climates ranging from subtropical to arctic as well as habitats from desert to high mountains, only a rather limited number of species within each ecological niche is covered. In the color plates each species is labeled by its scientific name and in some cases also by a common name. Regrettably, the genus is in almost all cases abbreviated with the first letter. For instance plate one has S. rufipes - red legged purseweb spider (sic), A. unicolor, S. abboti, and A. riversi - turret spider (sic). The abbreviation of the genus name seems to be common practice among taxonomists but a non-taxonomist, like me, has to look up each scientific name on the page preceding the plate. This is too bad because there is plenty of space in the plates to spell out the genus name. The mentioned preceding page provides the full scientific and common name (if there is one), TBL (total body length, I assume) of female and male, as well as "see page... " with more info on the spider further back in the Spider Accounts section of the book. Each page preceding the color plates is 1/2 to 2/3 empty. This would be more than enough space to indicate in what region of North America this spider can be found which is very useful for identification. Also a hint at similar looking spiders would be helpful. The Index refers a few times to the "color section" of the book. I skimmed through the book without finding this "color section" which is also not mentioned in Contents. Only after a thorough search did I find the 2 pages that comprise "color section" immediately following the color plates. I wanted to look up Lycosidae = Wolf Spiders in the color plates. Found Lycosidae in Contents and was referred to the Spider Accounts section which is by the way not listed in Contents. So I looked in the Index where again, the color plates for Lycosidae were not given. The plates are only listed with specific Wolf Spider species described in the Spider Accounts section. The information is all there one is just constantly referred from one section of the book to another.Hopefully the outstanding color drawings in this book will spark new interest in spiders and this book is a good starting point for the novice spider enthusiast but is of interest to more seasoned arachnophils. Better organization would make this book more user friendly.

Pristine condition. Promply shipped and packaged well. This is a recommended seller.

I love this book. I'm a biologist and really appreciate the wealth of technical information and references to the scientific literature, though I know those won't appeal to everybody. But even if you just thumb through the gorgeous picture plates, you'll be stunned with the variety and yes, beauty of spiders, and you WILL be able to identify reasonably well that spider that was hiding on your cut flowers or lurking in your basement. My grandson and I found the yellow spider that lives on his ceiling, and learned the fascinating fact that it gets energy from eating nectar. Spiders are such an accessible group - the author found 160 species in his yard! - that it is a shame they don't get more recognition. This book could be the impetus to make spiders as popular as butterflies and dragonflies for amateur naturalists. It's pricey so I hope a cheaper paperback version becomes available.

Dr. Bradley has been informing the public about spiders for many years through his presentations at public meetings and of course through his work at The Ohio State University. Now we are provided with his book that goes into the detail that explains why many people find spiders interesting. The book is complete with an identification key and many illustrations that are truly striking. This book is worth the investment for the illustrations alone. This book is essentially wonderful text book. If you have an older child who loves nature and the creatures in it, this book might help start a career in natural science. This is not just another book about spiders it is special.

Excelente libro

Quel ouvrage magnifique !

I love it, it has a lot of pictures and scientific names with a little description. I'm from Mexico and it helps me to identify some spiders.

I wanted a book on spiders, and I wanted the best, so I decided to get this one and I am very happy with it!In short, the first part of this book is about spider anatomy, habits, etc (very interesting read!), the second part is 'plates', which are images of spiders with their names, sizes, and a reference to the page where you will find more information about the specimen you are researching, which is the third and final part of the book. Each spider has about half a page of text explaining where it can be found, where it is from, how it lives, etc.When you see a spider that you wish to identify using this book, be sure to check for it's web (or lack thereof) because the spider images are grouped according to their weaving/hunting habits. I found it weird at first, but I quickly got used to it, and now it seems to make perfect sense!I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to know more about our fascinating eight-legged friends!

This book is great! Lots of information about each species, and the artwork is incredible! The book is divided into three sections. The first consists of spider biology, identification of various families and how to find spiders for study. The second section is comprised of all the beautiful artwork depicting the species covered in the final section. Finally, the last section has individual family and species accounts to correspond with the previous art. Avery happy with my purchase!