ENTOMOLOGY BOOKS This is a list of some of the entomology books I have enjoyed. I’m afraid I cannont guarantee they are still in print, and there are many more which may well suit your needs better; but this list give an indication of what is available, and incidentally indicates what is good – or bad – about these particular books, which will give an indication of the things you should look out for in an insect book. If it’s in green, I recommend it. Hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus (?), also known as the Marmalade fly, 12 August 2011, Stratford London, UK

Book Title	Author	Publisher	Year	ISBN	Notes
Field Guides
Spiders	Paul Hillyard	Collins Gem	1997	0-004-72275-2	Good field guide, although it covers spiders from all around the world. The 227 species shown (all photographs) are a very small portion of those you are likely to encounter, so don't be surprised if you find one not listed here.
Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe	Dick Jones	Country Life Guides	1983	0-600-35665-5	An excellent guide, with over 800 photos. It sometimes takes a little while to find your way to the right identification, but it is a pleasure to leaf through the pictures.
Some Common Spiders in Australia	Michael R Gray	Australian Museum	Undated	No ISBN	The photos are fabulous, but the text is more to do with first aid. Only 19 spiders shown, most are large and all are common. Good for frightening grandma but virtually useless for identification.
Australian Spiders in Colour	Ramon Mascord	Reed	1970	0-730-10291-2	Excellent guide. 198 photographs cover the most common spiders of Oz, and identification notes are clear and non-technical. Recommended.
Ants	Gary J Skinner and Geoffrey W Allen	Richmond Publishing	1996	0-855-46305-8	Considering there are only about 50 ant species in Britain, this takes a long way round to giving identification details. Few pictures of the ants themselves, and even fewer in colour, but it does have a useful flow diagram to identify species.
Ants of the British Isles	G J Skinner	Shire Natural History	1987	0-852-63896-5	Lots of photos, but no real key to identifying the species. Probably no longer available, anyway.
A Guide to Ants of South Australia	P J M Greenslade	South Australian Museum	1979	0-724-35730-4	A technical guide with no photographs. However, it has to cover several thousand species, and it does it quite well. Don’t expect to get an answer in the field, though: this requires specimen collection and close examination at home.
The Ants of Southern Australia	Alan N Andersen	CSIRO	1991		A simpler guide than the one above, but still no photographs. However, the identification key is clear and simple to follow.
Insects	Gordon Riley & Michael Chinery	Collins Gem	1986	0-004-58818-5	Once again, a good guide from Collins Gem, but it covers too much ground. However, surprisingly, it has one or two spiders not in the Spider Gem!
The Redback Spider and Other Venomous Creatures	L E Koch	Western Australian Museum	1980	0-724-48019-9	Another one to scare grandmother with, although the lack of photos removes a lot of the scariness. The line drawings are virtually useless for identification. Not worth buying.
Insects in Colour	N D Riley	Blandford	1963	0-713-70144-7	Virtually all the insects shown are British. Loads of colour pictures (not photos). A useful general guide.
Insects of Britain and Western Europe	Michael Chinery	Collins Pocket Guide	1986	0-002-19137-7	Excellent guide. Thousands of insects illustrated, with quick identification keys. The organisation of the book makes finding the information you need quite simple. If you buy only one guide, this should be it.
Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders	Lorus and Margery Milne	Audubon Guide	1980	0-394-50763-0	This is the way every guide should be done. Over 700 photos on glossy paper, and 1000 pages of text printed on bible paper. A pleasure to use. Pity I don't go to America much.
New Zealand Wildlife	Murdoch Riley	Viking Sevenseas	1983	No ISBN	A short guide with only a few pages of insects, but it does give the NZ-specific species like the Weta.
Insects of Australia	Edgar Riek	Jackaranda Pocket Guides	1963	No ISBN	Old book, probably out of print. Good for beetle and fly identification, but ant information sparse. No spiders.
Insects of Australia	John Goode	Angus and Robertson	1980	0-207-13427-8	Follows a similar pattern to the book above, but only eight colour plates! The line drawings are good, but without colour the guide is inadequate.
Worms to Wasps	Mark S Harvey and Alan L Yen	Oxford University Press	1989	0-195-53081-0	A waste of space, It only identifies insects by class and order, but not species. Yet almost every other page has a line-drawing on it (no colour). Illustrating hymenoptera (ants, wasps, bees) with a single picture labelled "wasp" is just silly. DON'T BUY!
Rainy Day Books
The Study of Ants	S H Skaife	Longmans	1961	No ISBN	Sadly out of print, this book gives detailed descriptions of several species of ant. It also has chapters on keeping ants and (most politically incorrect) information on ant wars and how to start them.
Ways of the Ant	John Crompton	Collins	1954	No ISBN	Once again out of print (probably mercifully). It is an interesting read, although full of anthropomorphism, and the disturbing tendency to refer to Lasius niger as "Negroes". A pity, because there is good science in here.
Ants	Anthony Wootton	Wayland Young Naturalist Books	1975	0-850-78221-X	Excellent book for young Formicologists. Lots of pictures of ants fighting, and good information on building your own formicarium.
Journey to the Ants	Bert Hölldobler and Edward O Wilson	Belknap-Harvard	1994	0-674-48526-2	Absolutely fascinating, a must-read. It has both observation and detailed description of the way ant society works. If you want to know how ants communicate, read this.
The Earth Dwellers	Erich Hoyt	Mainstream Publishing	1998	1-840-18173-7	A good read, but a bit of a soap opera. The lives of some ants in the La Selva reserve in Costa Rica are studied in detail.
The Natural History of the Garden	Michael Chinery	Collins	1977	0-002-19606-9	Doesn't concentrate on insects, it covers plants, birds and mammals, too. But the insect plates are particularly good - it has the best plate of slugs outside of a Klingon bistro.
Garden Creepy-Crawlies	Michael Chinery	Whittet Books	1986	0-905-48344-8	A book for young entomologists. No colour plates, but a fun approach to describing insects.
Alien Empire	Christopher O'Toole	BBC Books	1995	0-563-36910-8	As with all BBC books, glossy and full of beautiful pictures and useful facts.
Spineless Wonders	Richard Conniff	Souvenir Press	1996	0-285-63422-4	A fun book which looks at the way insects impinge on the poor entomologist in the field. From the sound of things, the insects get the best of the deal!
An Introduction to Australian Insects	Philip W Hadlington and Judith A Johnston	New South Wales University Press	1982	0-868-40208-7	This is really just a field guide, but in a book which is too large to fit in a pocket. Good pictures, but too many in black-and-white.
Reference Works
How to Photograph Insects and Spiders	Larry West and Julie Ridl	Stackpole Books	1994	0-811-72453-0	Beautiful photographs and excellent photography advice. I still tend to be a point-and-click merchant, but I keep meaning to try more…
The Social Biology of Ants	K Dumpert	Pitman	1981	0-273-08479-8	A study of the eusocial structures used by various species of ants, including a good chapter on ant communication.
Social Evolution in Ants	Andrew F G Bourke and Nigel R Franks	Princeton University Press	1995	0-691-04426-0	A study of the evolution of eusociality in ants, especially with regard to haplodiploidy and reproductive kin conflict. If you want a good, scientific explanation of how ants came about, this is it.
The Behavioural Ecology of Ants	John H Sudd and Nigel R Franks	Blackie	1987	0-216-92246-1	This is a clearly laid out study of the mechanisms of ant society – their economics, task specialisation, ecology and exploitative techniques. There is also a good chapter reconciling eusociality with Dawkins' selfish gene theory.