All You Need to Know About SpidersSpiders are super predators and devour everything they can overpower. To do this, they have developed incredibly good catching techniques and, with spider silk, a tool that makes material technology green with envy. The males are usually smaller than the females and, in order to have sex, they have to come up with a lot to avoid being misunderstood as easy prey: Dancing, drumming, and gifts almost always help. Spiders use their venom in very precise doses, and since humans are not on their menu, they are harmless to us. Many people's (unnecessary) fear of spiders finds cultural roots as early as the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, spider fear is easily treatable. There is no habitat or building without spiders. And that's a good thing, because spiders have fascinating properties and their world is full of surprises. Everything you need to know about them is explained in this book in understandable language by experts forlaymen. In addition, some of the most common spider species in the house and garden are briefly presented with tips for observation.
The authorsThis book is authored by eight scientists, all of them members of the Association for the Promotion of Spider Research:
Wolfgang Nentwig, Jutta Ansorg, Angelo Bolzern, Holger Frick, Anne-Sarah Ganske, Ambros Hänggi, Christian Kropf and Anna Stäubli."All You Need to Know About Spiders is an excellent introduction to spider biology for general readers. It is an easy and informative read and will provide all of the essential information anyone curious about this aspect of the natural world will need to know in order to appreciate how incredible spiders are and how essential they are in controlling insect populations in all terrestrial habitats of this planet." (Paula E. Cushing, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 99 (3), September, 2024)
"The book is well-illustrated. ? this popular book has made a very good impression on me. No doubt it will be a very useful and reliable source of general information about spiders for 6th-formers, students and aspiring naturalists. Yet, not belonging to any of these categories, as a professional arachnologist, I found the reading of this book refreshing and very rewarding. Finally, it is a good value for money. I highly recommend it to both amateur and professional arachnologists alike." (Dmitri V. Logunov, Newsletter of the British Arachnological Society, Issue 154, 2022)
