Spiders of North America
An identification manual
Darrell Ubick Paula Cushing Nadine Dupérré Pierre Paquin
9780998014616
435 pages
American Arachnological Society
Overview
The 2nd edition of this beautifully illustrated guide to the spiders of North America, north of Mexico, provides completely updated keys and information about this important part of North American fauna. This is an indispensable reference for anyone interested in spider diversity or identification. This updated edition provides more than 1,400 illustrations and keys to the genera in 71 spider families. Over 600 genera are included. Taxonomic changes since the publication of the 1st edition in 2005 are reflected in every chapter. The manual includes 76 chapters and a wealth of information including an introduction to spider morphology, natural history, collecting techniques and preservation methods; an overview of the current status and most recent developments in spider phylogeny and evolutionary history; a key to the families of spiders found in North America, north of Mexico; keys to the genera in each of these families; an etymological dictionary explaining the derivation of the names of spider genera and families; a well-illustrated glossary; a pronunciation guide to the names of common taxa; and a complete bibliography. This is the first completely revised version of the manual since its original publication in 2005. Note that this is not a photo-ID guide to spiders; it is intended to aid in accurate identification and to do this one must become familiar with some of the details of spider morphology/anatomy. To aid in this task, a guide to morphology used in classification is provided in the introduction. The information on spider biology and identification make this manual especially suitable for both amateur naturalists and professional arachnologists. Over 40 arachnologists, all experts in their groups, contributed to this publication.
Author Bio
Darrell Ubick is the curatorial assistant in the arachnology collection at the California Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the taxonomy of spiders and other arachnids, particularly cave adapted fauna and endemic species.
Paula Cushing is the Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Her research focuses on the biodiversity of spiders in the Rocky Mountain region, on the taxonomy and biology of arachnids in the order Solifugae, and on myrmecophile spiders that live in ant colonies.Nadine Dupérré is a technical assistant in the Department of Arachnology at the Universität Hamburg. Her research interests are in the areas of taxonomy, diversity and zoogeography of spiders. She has been the scientific illustrator for many important publications on spider taxonomy.Pierre Paquin is a well-known spider taxonomist with an expertise on cave fauna. He and illustrator, Nadine Dupérré, have published numerous articles and identification manuals focused on the spider fauna of Canada.
