Home > Categories > Books > Reference > Which New Zealand Spider? review
In this new companion to his award-winning Which New Zealand Insect? Andrew Crowe showcases New Zealand spiders, with practical details on how, when and where to find them.
The author continues in his typically entertaining style to weave in many odd and surprising facts - such as how best to eat big spiders, which ones fly, and how to use spider webs for catching fish or for stopping bullets.
You can also learn here:
• Which spiders somersault or jump
• Which spiders walk on water, live under the sea or in caves
• Whether the whitetailed spider really is dangerous
• How to find and recognise a native katipo spider
• Which spiders brave slime to feed on garden snails
• Who wins when a hunting wasp goes after a trapdoor spider
Product reviews...
The spider has always been a creature that fascinates me, although they've always terrified my brother. As a kid, I was forever searching the garden for them, watching the various species I found scuttling back to safety, often with a sack of eggs sitting snugly on their back. Or watching them hunt the insects that stupidly got themselves caught in the spiders' webs. Or even just watching their webs glisten in the sunlight after a fresh rainfall, or early in the morning. Now, as a photographer whose main interest is any type of wildlife, I'm still often out there, looking for insects, and I still find spiders to be one of my favourites. So, this was a book I definitely wanted to check out, especially with so many different types of spiders out there. Always pays to know what I'm hunting with the lens!! *g*
Full of helpful photos and facts about each spider, Which New Zealand Spider is broken up into different sections, to make it easier to find the type of spider you're after. Among the facts listed are things like where you'd be most likely to find each type of spider, how big it is, how many babies it can have- even such things like the Golden Orbweb Spider's web being used in research to make bullet-proof vests, or how in 1973 NASA launched two Orbweb Spiders into outer space to see how they faired with making webs on Skylab. Overall, a handy book to have if you have kids (could be useful for school projects), or just simply want to know more about spiders.
Random listing from 'Books'...
In the winter palace, the King's new physician has more enemies than she at first realises. But then she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about.
In another palace across the mountains, in the service of the regicidal Protector general, the chief bodyguard, too, has his enemies. But his enemies strike more swiftly, and his means of combatting them are more traditional.
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