Spiders are identified by the kinds of webs they build. Read about some of the different kinds of webs, from tangled to funnel, and the purposes they serve. Students will also gain an appreciation for these industrious arachnids, which feed on insects and can build beautiful webs in half an hour.

This is a book about spiders and arachnophobia. With a touch of humour, deep curiosity and an artist’s eye the author examines her phobia and the object of her fear. What is a spider? What makes these eight-legged creatures so scary? To understand her own reactions to spiders better she describes her past and present encounters with them. The story takes her back to her childhood in Norway and the USA, to holidays in Spain and Portugal, to travels around Australia, and to her relocation in Tasmania. She focuses on Australian spiders while including fine examples of these astonishing creatures from elsewhere. Hildegunn Hodne, originally from Norway, now calls Tasmania home. She works as a freelance illustrator, writer and portrait artist with studio space in the small village of Chudleigh, Northern Tasmania. To ensure she continues to encounter spiders and local wildlife she also works as a gardener. Spider Stories: My Journey from Phobia to Fascination is her first book. She’s currently working on a new book project, focusing on birds and travels. For more examples of Hildegunn’s artwork please visit her website: hildegunnhodne.com

This is the first children's book in a series about an adorable traveling spider and his big dreams to see the world. Send your children on a vivid journey of Italy, through the eyes of this passionately, curious spider. This book will draw your child in, with beautiful words and brilliantly playful hand-drawn watercolors. Through this book your child will experience Italian culture, friends and fun and will be inspired and encouraged to follow their hearts and live out their dreams. The perfect book for children of all ages and reading levels.

Australians have a love–hate relationship with spiders. Some spiders, such as the Redback and the Sydney Funnelweb, inspire fear. Yet Peacock Spiders, with their colourful fan-spreading courtship dances, have won rapturous appreciation worldwide. A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia uses photographs of living animals to help people identify many of the spiders they encounter. Featuring over 1300 colour photographs, it is the most comprehensive account of Australian spiders ever published. With more than two-thirds of Australian spiders yet to be scientifically described, this book sets the scene for future explorations of our extraordinary Australian fauna. This field guide will be enjoyed by naturalists and anyone with an interest in learning more about Australia's incredible arachnids.

Describes the physical characteristics and behavior of spiders and how they use their silk for weaving webs and other purposes.

In this lavishly illustrated, first-ever book on how spider webs are built, function, and evolved, William Eberhard provides a comprehensive overview of spider functional morphology and behavior related to web building, and of the surprising physical agility and mental abilities of orb weavers. For instance, one spider spins more than three precisely spaced, morphologically complex spiral attachments per second for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Spiders even adjust the mechanical properties of their famously strong silken lines to different parts of their webs and different environments, and make dramatic modifications in orb designs to adapt to available spaces. This extensive adaptive flexibility, involving decisions influenced by up to sixteen different cues, is unexpected in such small, supposedly simple animals. As Eberhard reveals, the extraordinary diversity of webs includes ingenious solutions to gain access to prey in esoteric habitats, from blazing hot and shifting sand dunes (to capture ants) to the surfaces of tropical lakes (to capture water striders). Some webs are nets that are cast onto prey, while others form baskets into which the spider flicks prey. Some aerial webs are tramways used by spiders searching for chemical cues from their prey below, while others feature landing sites for flying insects and spiders where the spider then stalks its prey. In some webs, long trip lines are delicately sustained just above the ground by tiny rigid silk poles. Stemming from the author’s more than five decades observing spider webs, this book will be the definitive reference for years to come.

One of the only books to treat the whole spider, from its behavior and physiology to its neurobiology and reproductive characteristics, Biology of Spiders is considered a classic in spider literature. First published in German in 1979, the book is now in its third edition, and has established itself as the supreme authority on these fascinating creatures. Containing five hundred new references, this book incorporates the latest research while dispelling many oft-heard myths and misconceptions that surround spiders. Of special interest are chapters on the structure and function of spider webs and silk, as well as those on spider venom. A new subchapter on tarantulas will appeal especially to tarantula keepers and breeders. The highly accessible text is supplemented by exceptional, high-quality photographs, many of them originals, and detailed diagrams. It will be of interest to arachnologists, entomologists, and zoologists, as well as to academics, students of biology, and the general reader curious about spiders.