Originally published: London: New Holland, c2007.

"I have never warmed much to spiders . . . [they] are too creepy . . . Well, I'm wrong and this book has changed my mind. Spiders are tops. . . . One is tempted to think there is no such thing as a dull spider." -- British Wildlife "The hair-raising factor will attract even arachnophobic teens." -- Booklist Spiders provides information on habitat, hunting techniques, anatomy, general characteristics and location of spiders, the most successful of all terrestrial predators in the world. Stephen Dalton has chosen to focus on spiders' hunting methods and provides fascinating information on the astonishing array of techniques spiders use for catching their prey: trapping in webs, lassoing, jumping, stealing, chasing, ambushing, spitting, fishing, masquerading as other animals and even attracting prey by mimicking the prey's pheromones. The spiders are grouped by their method of hunting: Nocturnal hunters Trappers: orderly webs Daylight: visual hunters Trappers: disorderly webs Jumping spiders Tunnel-web builders Ambushers and lurkers Nonconformists. Dalton's spectacular photographs are extraordinary in their detail, and some of them document spider behavior never recorded previously. He also gives expert guidance on photographing spiders.

Jonathan Edwards compared a person dangling a spider over a hearth to God holding a sinner over hellfire in his most famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Here, spiders and insects preach back. No voice, no matter how mighty, drowns all others. Grace, human failings, and extraordinary convictions combine unexpectedly in this New England tale.

David Attenborough invites you to witness the dramatic battles between predator and prey that are happening in the corner of your living room and in your larder - and get up close and personal with scorpions and centipedes, mites and mantids, spiders and dragonflies.

Spiders, objects of eternal human fascination, are found in many places: on the ground, in the air, and even under water. Leslie Brunetta and Catherine Craig have teamed up to produce a substantive yet entertaining book for anyone who has ever wondered, as a spider rappelled out of reach on a line of silk, “How do they do that?” The orb web, that iconic wheel-shaped web most of us associate with spiders, contains at least four different silk proteins, each performing a different function and all meshing together to create a fly-catching machine that has amazed and inspired humans through the ages. Brunetta and Craig tell the intriguing story of how spiders evolved over 400 million years to add new silks and new uses for silk to their survival “toolkit” and, in the telling, take readers far beyond the orb. The authors describe the trials and triumphs of spiders as they use silk to negotiate an ever-changing environment, and they show how natural selection acts at the genetic level and as individuals struggle for survival.

Praise for the previous edition: "...make[s] high-level scientific concepts accessible to secondary students."—Library Journal "...clearly written and well organized..."—School Library Journal "Fulfilling educational benchmarks identified by the National Academy of Sciences, this encyclopedia is an excellent choice for both public and academic libraries. Recommended."—Choice "...a thorough and informative work...provide[s] accessible information...There is simply no other work that compares to this...High-school and public libraries will welcome such a well-researched title..."—Booklist "The text is suitable for high school students but advanced enough for adult readers, too...presents important biodiversity topics...a handy overview for term papers and class presentations."—Library Journal Biodiversity and ecology are founded in evolutionary science. In order to understand why species of organisms occupy different parts of the world, it is important to comprehend how they evolved. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Revised Edition examines this evolutionary framework with the help of more than 150 entries and five essays averaging at least 2,000 words each. High school teachers can use these entries—grouped by topic—to meet many of the science education goals established by the National Academy of Sciences. Written by a leading expert in the field, this comprehensive, full-color encyclopedia makes information about groups of organisms (from bacteria to mammals) and about ecological concepts and processes (such as biogeography and ecological succession) clearly and readily available to students and the general public. Tables at the end of each entry have a consistent structure, allowing readers to see how environmental conditions and biodiversity have changed through evolutionary time. Entries include: Acid rain and fog Biodiversity in the Jurassic period Darwin's finches Galápagos Islands Peter and Rosemary Grant Life in bogs Natural selection Population genetics Seedless plants Tropical rainforests and deforestation Alfred Russel Wallace.

Who was Jeffrey Epstein? A Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist unearths never-before-reported details in the most comprehensive account yet of the disgraced financier’s life, death, and criminal web, including the role of Ghislaine Maxwell. An ID Book Club Selection • Featured in the Peacock original documentary series Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell By now, the basic contours of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrendous crimes—his decades-long serial abuse of young women and underage girls—are familiar. But for all that has been written about Epstein since his shocking death in a lower Manhattan jail cell, an astonishing amount remains unknown. A shy Brooklyn kid turned renegade financier, Jeffrey Epstein never wanted to play by the rules of polite society. He was elusive in life and he has remained just as elusive in death. What is known is that he had amassed nearly $600 million by the time of his death. That fortune allowed Epstein to pursue a privileged, secretive life, jetting between his fortress-like homes in Manhattan, New Mexico, and Little St. James, his private island. Behind these closed doors, Epstein socialized with scientists and world leaders and preyed on powerless young women. In The Spider, Barry Levine shines a light into the darkest corners of Epstein’s world, including • Epstein’s young adulthood and earliest accusations of sexual misconduct • the murky sources of Epstein’s fortune and business dealings • Epstein’s circle of confidantes and employees, particularly the nature of his long relationship with socialite Ghislaine Maxwell • his ties to powerful men, including Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Les Wexner, and Donald Trump • Epstein’s last hours as a free man in Paris and the secret operation to arrest him at a New Jersey airport before he could flee • new details on Epstein’s final days in jail and the mystery surrounding his death Featuring rare and never-before-seen photographs, The Spider exposes how Epstein operated and evaded justice for so long—and how he drew so many others into his criminal web.

"Samuel R. Delany is not only one of the most profound and courageous writers at work today; he is a writer of seemingly limitless range." --Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE HOURS "A deeply affecting chronicle of a lifelong partnership, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is by turns generous, unsparing and bursting with life (and sex) in all its difficult, rousing, prismatic splendor. A truly staggering achievement, this moving novel underscores why Delany remains essential reading and why American letters would be the poorer without him." --Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao In 2007, days before his seventeenth birthday, Eric Jeffers meets nineteen-year-old Morgan Haskell, as well as half-a-dozen other gay men who live and work in Diamond Harbor. The boys become a couple, and for the next twenty years, labor as garbage men along the coast, sharing their lives and their lovers, learning to negotiate a committed open relationship. For a decade, they manage a rural movie theater that shows pornographic films and encourages gay activity among the audience. Finally, they become handymen for a burgeoning lesbian art colony on nearby Gilead Island, as the world moves twenty years, forty years, sixty years into a future that is fascinating, glorious, and--sometimes--terrifying. Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is a near-future science fiction novel published in two volumes. "Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is . . . one of the best novels by anyone that I have read in quite a long time. Indeed, I would go so far as to say (as I already put it on Twitter) that it is the best English-language novel that I know of, of the 21st century so far [2012]." --Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University "An imposing and immersive novel punched me in the face, and kissed me, and filled my lungs this year. It is a deeply pornographic and sympathetic experience that disturbs (expect a barrage of all sorts of non-normative sex and a total re-evaluation of narrative structure), gratifies (expect an in-depth journey with a cast of characters that you will come to know and love in such a way you thought impossible in contemporary fiction), and enlightens . . . The importance of this book CANNOT be overstated. It is the best LGBT book that was published this year [2012], as well as the best book, period." --Lonely Christopher, author of Death and Disaster Series