The Pacific dunes provide a unique habitat for plants, animals, and insects, and anyone who walks along the coast will want to have this illustrated reference handy. While written for the educated public, comprehensive data for biologists studying dune ecology are also included. This guide to exploring the dunes is detailed enough to be used by biologists and ecologists, accessible enough to serve as a field guide to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. A Naturalist's Guide to the Pacific Dunes belongs on every beach house bookshelf from California to Canada.

"Creepy, beautiful, icky and amazing." —Penny Le Couteur, author of Napoleon's Button Insects have been shaping our ecological world and plant life for over 400 million years. In fact, our world is essentially run by bugs—there are 1.4 billion for every human on the planet. In Bugged, journalist David MacNeal takes us on an off-beat scientific journey that weaves together history, travel, and culture in order to define our relationship with these mini-monsters. MacNeal introduces a cast of bug-lovers—from a woman facilitating tarantula sex and an exterminator nursing bedbugs (on his own blood), to a kingpin of the black market insect trade and a “maggotologist”—who obsess over the crucial role insects play in our everyday lives. Just like bugs, this book is global in its scope, diversity, and intrigue. Hands-on with pet beetles in Japan, releasing lab-raised mosquitoes in Brazil, beekeeping on a Greek island, or using urine and antlers as means of ancient pest control, MacNeal’s quest appeals to the squeamish and brave alike. Demonstrating insects’ amazingly complex mechanics, he strings together varied interactions we humans have with them, like extermination, epidemics, and biomimicry. And, when the journey comes to an end, MacNeal examines their commercial role in our world in an effort to help us ultimately cherish (and maybe even eat) bugs.

This photo-illustrated book for early readers tells how ants find food. Includes picture glossary.

This field guide sets a new standard for insect identification, making it an indispensable resource to naturalists, educators, gardeners, and others. Engaging and accessible, Pacific Northwest Insects features detailed species accounts, each with a vivid photograph of a living adult, along with information for distinguishing similar species, allowing the reader to identify more than 3,000 species found from southern British Columbia to northern California and as far east as Montana. The book features most of the commonly encountered insects, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes, and kin in the Pacific Northwest, as well as representatives of an amazing variety of unusual and interesting insects living in the area. After more than a decade of research, reviewing hundreds of thousands of museum specimens and scouring the technical entomological literature, Merrill Peterson has brought together for the first time in a single volume a wealth of information on the region's insect life. Detailed identifying information on over 3,000 species Complete description of 1,200 species Organized by insect group for easy identification Up-to-date taxonomy 1,725 color photos, 50 line drawings, and 2 maps

A journey into the weird, wonderful and truly astonishing lives of the small but mighty creatures who keep the world turning. Out of sight, underfoot, unseen beyond fleeting scuttles or darting flights, insects occupy a hidden world, yet are essential to sustaining life on earth. Insects influence our ecosystem like a ripple effect on water. They arrived when life first moved to dry land, they preceded - and survived - the dinosaurs, they outnumber the grains of sand on all the world's beaches, and they will be here long after us. Working quietly but tirelessly, they give us food, uphold our ecosystems, can heal our wounds and even digest plastic. They could also provide us with new solutions to the antibiotics crisis, assist in disaster zones and inspire airforce engineers with their flying techniques. But their private lives are also full of fun, intrigue and wonder -musical mating rituals; house-hunting for armies of beetle babies; metamorphosing into new characters; throwing parties in fermenting sap; cultivating fungi for food; farming smaller species for honey dew and always ensuring that what is dead is decomposed, ready to become life once again. Here, we will discover life and death, drama and dreams, all on a millimetric scale. Like it or not, Earth is the planet of insects, and this is their extraordinary story.

A fun-filled field guide into the creepy-crawly world of the bugs of Washington and Oregon. Learn about 125 of the coolest bugs you might encounter in the great outdoors of the Northwest. John Acorn, an avid "bugster" and host of the popular television series The Nature Nut, supplies lively text that evokes each species' character. Respected artist and naturalist Ian Sheldon has created brilliant illustrations that bring each bug to life.