George C. McGavin

The book opens with some very useful pointers, firstly How This book Works explains what is contained on each page, following this are a few pages that explain insect Anatomy, and further a few pages on Identification. The main part of the book is divided into three sections: Insects; Arachnids; Other Anthropods. The book concludes with a glossary and an index.

The books is very well illustrated, each page has up to seven or eight photographs and drawings including a picture of the insects' show more habitat. There are also brief notes including comments on the insects' various stages, and often significant features are labelled in the photographs.

As a novice when it comes to insects I am not qualified to comment on the content other than to say I do find it very informative, and in format a very practical book, tall and narrow, 19 cm x 10 cm, it will fit comfortably into ones pocket and so is ideal for use in the field. But as a designer I am qualified to comment on the presentation, and here I find the overall page presentation not so practical; there is a great deal on each page and the resulting layout is confusing and difficult to read - the type is small ans some very small, and to compound the problem the smaller type is invariable presented against and coloured background making reading even more difficult especially in less than ideal lighting conditions. The general layout can appear chaotic making it hard to find the information your are looking for, I would have preferred a much more ordered and consistent page layout so I knew exactly where to look on each page for the information I seek. (So it's really four or five stars for content, but just one or two stars for presentation.) show less

This was an interesting book and I think many people will enjoy it more than I did. It covered a lot of topics but it jumped around more than I would have liked. I would have loved to get a bit more detail about each topic. I would also have liked a bit more diversity in the featured scientists, but this part wasn't exactly unexpected.

Excellent introduction to the world of arthropod s. Concentrates on insects with 3D pop-up illustrations. Covers anatomy, reproduction and ecology.