Crazy Creepy Crawlies

Books in the Extreme Animals series reveal examples of some of the most bizarre, amazing, and extreme animals in the world. This book looks at crazy creepy crawlies, including beastly beetles, super spiders, and wicked wasps.

Looks at small size invertebrates, describing their physical features and adaptations for survival, and including such creatures as centipedes, mites, ticks, fleas, lice, sea spiders, and water bears.

These early works by various authors were originally published in the late 19th century and early 20th century and we are now republishing them with a brand new introduction as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Weird Tales of Creepy Crawlies' contains a collection of short stories about mysterious insects and arachnids, and includes 'The Strong Spider' by Edgar Allan Poe (1846), 'The Messenger' by Robert W. Chambers (1897), 'The Empire of the Ants' by by H. G. Wells (1905), and many more. The stories in this collection were mostly written around the turn of the century. And most of them reflect what has been a pretty consistent human reaction to insects, as evidenced throughout the literary tradition – fascination and disgust, in equal measure. Despite the Romantics' best efforts, the perception of insects as repulsive, threatening and unclean – the carriers of pestilence and plague in the bible; the exemplifiers of foulness in Shakespeare – has never quite gone away. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Flying insects hold one of the great keys to survival: wings. And there are winged insects buzzing, flitting, and soaring all around us. Take a close-up look to see how the hummingbird hawk moth dodges predators as it feeds, how honeybees dance to show where food-rich flowers are, and how an emperor dragonfly can see—and fly—in all directions. You'll meet all kinds of incredible creepy crawlers with impressive flying techniques, from master-builder wasps to the always pesky mosquito. It's enough to make you wish you had wings too!