Rating: 
Summary: A great book!
Review: A wonderful book for learning more about our everyday household friends (especially the unwelcome ones). Plus I *finally* get to see a photograph of the dreaded brown recluse (violin) spider, which unfortunately many spider books tend to gloss over in favor of more "formidable" ones such as tarantulas and black widows.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for identifying an insect.
Review: Although not filled with information on insects in general, it has basically all of the North American insects and spiders. Easy to reference and all the bugs have nice pictures, thats why I give this incredible book five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Frustrating Insect Guide
Review: At the risk of repeating myself to readers who are searching for an insect field guide, I said in another review:
Consider the lucky birders. In North America there are less than 900 species of birds. While some may be only 3 or four inches long, others are measured in feet. New birding guides are issued every year. And while a few species, like the empidonax flycatchers may be difficult to tell apart, all of the species are illustrated in most guides, and 90% are identifiable if the birder gets a good look at them.
Now consider the amateur entomologist. There are over 80,000 species of insects in North America. Most insects are relatively small. Telling the difference between species may require examining the vein pattern in wings. The field guides to insects illustrate at most 700 insects. No wonder there are more bird watchers than insect watchers. And no wonder there hasn't been a major insect field guide published since 1981!
A field guide to insects then probably can't help you identify most specific species. The authors feel they have done their job if they can help you identify the family.
Unfortunately most, including this Audubon Guide, may not even do that.
To test insect guides I took a series of photographs of each of three insects and then tried to identify them with the help of the guides. They were pictures of a butterfly-like insect, a bee and a fly. To find an insect in Audubon one first looks through an index of over 100 different insect and spider silhouettes. Located next to the silhouettes are the pages in the guide where insects resembling the silhouette are grouped. One can also use a thumb tab located on the page edge of each set of plates to find the desired silhouette. Next one goes through the individual plates adjacent to the silhouette to find the picture of an insect resembling one's target. The text page relating to each insect shown is listed under its picture. The text provides a description of the insect family and behavior but no illustrations. The plates are ordered by color and shape and not by insect order to make it easy to identify an insect without knowing anything about its taxa. However, because of the literal nature of a photograph, one may not be able to identify the family of an insect not pictured.
In the case of my butterfly-like insect I was not able to identify it, although because I knew from other research that it was a Brown Skipper, I did find the picture of a different looking skipper. For my bee and my fly, I saw several similar insects but was unable to identify either as to family.
Unlike the other insect guides, the Audubon includes a section on spiders, which are not in the insect family. Since one is likely to encounter arachnids while searching for insecta, this may be convenient.
The Audubon has one of the easiest to use methods of finding an insect of any of the insect guides. However, if the guide doesn't include a picture of your insect in its 627 plates (it also has 63 spider plates), one may be unlikely to identify a specimen or its family. This may leave you as frustrated as any of the other insect guides.
Users who prefer drawings to photographs might want to examine the Peterson Field Guide, "Insects" by Donald Borror and Richard White. However, it too will probably leave you feeling unsatisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: A reference is a reference, no matter the quality
Review: Considering that there are few alternatives in accessible invertebrate field guides, this book is an invaluable reference. However, the photos are not ideal; indeed, many are not clear enough to enable accurate identification. Line drawings are far superior for identification of insects, as they can highlight certain diagnostic features which simply do not appear in these photos. Still, it is a must have, I must grudgingly admit.
Rating: 
Summary: Generally and Excellent Book
Review: Even if I am not actually "in the field" I love to read the descriptions and see the photos of the insects and spiders in this book. You learn something new every time you pick it up. The photographs are very clear, often capturing an image of a difficult-to-photograph insect (some of them only 1/32" in size). The thumbnails make it easy to get yourself in the right general area by body type, then you move through the section to identify the specific insect/spider in question. The text descriptions of the spiders is, for me, the most interesting part of this book, and you'll come to appreciate arachnids like never before.My only criticism of this book is that the editors decided to spend relatively less time on some of the insects that you are more likely to actually see (just two examples that come to mind are millipedes and centipedes), while spending a lot of time on insects that are very unlikely to be witnessed by most amateurs (for example, there is extensive coverage of mites and fleas). Of couse, no one would expect Audubon to be able to cover every angle of the insect world, and no matter what choice Audubon makes they will please some people and displease others. In future editions, however, I would love to see the same coverage of the rare insects with some expansion. For educational purposes, however, this book is terrific. Children could definitely use it to begin to appreciate the diversity and importance of the insect world. Reading about very tiny insects -- even if they never actually see them -- will reinforce for children the idea that the world is full of life, even in places they can't see. Every description in this book should ignite a child's -- or an adult's -- imagination of what else is out there...
Rating:
Summary: Generally and Excellent Book
Review: Even if I am not actually "in the field" I love to read the descriptions and see the photos of the insects and spiders in this book. You learn something new every time you pick it up. The photographs are very clear, often capturing an image of a difficult-to-photograph insect (some of them only 1/32" in size). The thumbnails make it easy to get yourself in the right general area by body type, then you move through the section to identify the specific insect/spider in question. The text descriptions of the spiders is, for me, the most interesting part of this book, and you'll come to appreciate arachnids like never before. My only criticism of this book is that the editors decided to spend relatively less time on some of the insects that you are more likely to actually see (just two examples that come to mind are millipedes and centipedes), while spending a lot of time on insects that are very unlikely to be witnessed by most amateurs (for example, there is extensive coverage of mites and fleas). Of couse, no one would expect Audubon to be able to cover every angle of the insect world, and no matter what choice Audubon makes they will please some people and displease others. In future editions, however, I would love to see the same coverage of the rare insects with some expansion. For educational purposes, however, this book is terrific. Children could definitely use it to begin to appreciate the diversity and importance of the insect world. Reading about very tiny insects -- even if they never actually see them -- will reinforce for children the idea that the world is full of life, even in places they can't see. Every description in this book should ignite a child's -- or an adult's -- imagination of what else is out there...
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding guide for macro photographers
Review: Getting into macro photography, I was discovering all kinds of weird insects, and had no idea what they were. I knew that to be as professional as possible, I needed to be able to identify my tiny subjects as well as know their habits, preferred envirnonment and so on... I like the way this book is organized. You have a table of contents of sorts that lists bug shapes. They are organized by similiar shape, and color. Not ment to be read from cover to cover, this book is excellent for throwing into my camera bag for to be a field reference.
Rating:
Summary: A plethora of information!
Review: Hopefully this review will be read by the authors.... I am a lover of arachnids and have kept 2 Black and Yellow Argiopes in my terrerium. However, your book states after an Argiope has made her egg sac, she dies. Margie my Argiope has not died, but has continued to live and has made 2 other sacs. It was perplexing to see her continue to make sac after sac, but she is still thriving. Perhaps it is becasue she's been in captivity. Some insight on this phenomenon would be helpful. It would also be helpful if, in the next book, information could be givin as to which spiders are poisonous to humans aside from the Black Widow and Violin spiders. I have a wonderful wolf spider which I hold on a regular basis. If he were to bite me, what can I expect? Thank you for writing such an informative book. It also makes for good bedside reading material. Sincerely, T. Gripp
Rating:
Summary: Another book with significant false statements
Review: I didn't find this book very helpful at all. It dosn't have a wide selection of spiders. I was looking for a picture of a Brown Recluse and it wasn't even mentioned. However the book did contain really good pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Limited Selection
Review: I didn't find this book very helpful at all. It dosn't have a wide selection of spiders. I was looking for a picture of a Brown Recluse and it wasn't even mentioned. However the book did contain really good pictures.
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