Insects + Spiders

I never expected to become interested in mosquitoes. The ones I observed around central Geelong seemed dull compared to many other types of insects. This changed when I started following one of the co-authors, Dr Cameron Webb, on twitter. He frequently tweets about science communication, entomology and mosquitoes. I bought this book on a whim after Dr Webbs tweets had piqued my … [Read more...] about Book Review: A Guide To Mosquitoes Of Australia

Galls were one of the first things I noticed when I started to explore entomology. I'd see these strange lumps on either the leaves or stems of various plants. Kind naturalists informed me that these were 'galls,' but it was a struggle to find accessible information on them. This book filled part of that need. It's just 61 pages, so barely scratched the surface when it came … [Read more...] about Book Review: Life In A Gall

Writing a guide to the beetles of Australia is no simple task. According to the Australian Museum, there are potentially 30’000 species that may occur in Australia. Only two-thirds of these have been scientifically described. The authors accomplished something amazing with this book. They’ve provided an overview of most beetle families that may be encountered in Australia. … [Read more...] about Book Review: A Guide To The Beetles Of Australia

One of the things that shocked me when I started exploring bee identification was how difficult it was to narrow a bee to species. This is due to two reasons: there is still a lot of work to be done in the field you need to be able to view the small details, some of which can only be seen using magnification. I would submit my photos to citizen science websites … [Read more...] about Book Review: A Guide to Native Bees of Australia

Miniature Lives is my second favourite guide for identifying insects. I love Backyard Insects but eventually outgrew it. I had bought other insect field guides but was struggling. It was sheer information overwhelm and a completely different scenario than bird identification. Michelle Gleeson created the perfect book to introduce readers to more advanced methods of … [Read more...] about Book Review: Miniature Lives