The Biology of Spiders according to the publisher “has established itself as the supreme authority on these fascinating creatures.” – OUP. This book is very insightful and probably will cover everything about spiders themselves. It may be the only book you will ever need on the scientific study of spiders; there is no other book that I know of like it. The author did very well to make it very academic and scholarly while still being able to be understood by any interested reader; it could easily be used for a university class on Arachnology.

What This Book is Not

It should be noted at the beginning of this review that if you are searching for a book that will guide you in keeping or raising spiders or as a field guide for identification, the Biology of Spiders is NOT the book you want. This book is not about husbandry or identification but rather the biology of spiders. If you want to know more about husbandry, even for true spiders, I would recommend The Tarantula Keeper’s Guide: Comprehensive Information on Care, Housing, and Feeding by Stanley A. Schultz and Marguerite J. Schultz. Although this book was specially written for the care of tarantulas, it can certainly be used for the care of true spiders.

The book Biology of Spiders has lots of diagrams and pictures, which helps with understanding the material and keeping the reader engaged.

Table of Contents:

• An Introduction to Spiders
• Functional Anatomy
• Metabolism
• Neurobiology
• Spider Webs
• Locomotion and Prey Capture
• Reproduction
• Development
• Ecology
• Phylogeny and Systematics
• Bibliography
• Index

The book is a little expensive, but I believe it will not disappoint if you are interested in learning about the areas of study mentioned above. Overall, I certainly do recommend this book. The only down side is the book was last published in 2011, so its not the most update resource.