Book Review

The crawlies were the topic of a special exhibition at the Natural History Museum intended for schoolchildren,... Quickley a few colorful pages show us an album of animals, and a double spread presents a big crab in its suit of armor. If you lived inside a suit of armor, how would you grow? A dazzling page then displays no less than eight similarly shaped, successively larger skin molts of a crab. ...We admire colors and their origins, most unexpectedly the beautiful blue glow of New Zealand gnat larvae. They shine to draw their prey towards sticky flytrap threads they string from the roof of a dark cave. Naturally, some big, gross photos are here too, an anophelid mosquito attacking a hairy forearm, a feisty city cockroach, a busy covey of "biscuit beetles" (who prefer dry crispy treats to chocolate-covered ones.) ... A couple of hundred choice color photos sample this ark pretty well...

~ Philip and Phylis Morrison, Scientific American exerpt


This book is wide ranging with good explanations of how creatures are catagorized, how they grow and eat. Pictures are wonderful and informative.

~ Lee Grodzins, Ph.D., Physicist, Professor Emeritus, MIT

This is a book that covers all kinds of arthropods. It is for the older reader with a large number of excellent photos. The book does well with covering many arthropod groups while not being general at all. I did notice an inaccurate glimpse of insect metamorphosis - leaving out incomplete metamorphosis.

~ Maria Palopoli, Science Teacher, Brunswick Junior High School