Insects And Other Arthropods Of Tropical America

Visitors to tropical forests generally come to see the birds, mammals, and plants. Aside from butterflies, however, insects usually do not make it on the list of things to see. This is a shame. Insects are everywhere, they are often as beautiful as the showiest of birds, and they have a fascinating natural history. With their beautifully illustrated guide to insects and other arthropods, Paul E. Hanson and Kenji Nishida put the focus on readily observable insects that one encounters while strolling through a tropical forest in the Americas. It is a general belief that insects in the tropics are larger and more colorful than insects in temperate regions, but this simply reflects a greater diversity of nearly all types of insects in the tropics. On a single rainforest tree, for example, you will find more species of ant than in all of England. Though written for those who have no prior knowledge of insects, this book should also prove useful to those who study them. In addition to descriptions of the principal insect families, the reader will find a wealth of biological information that serves as an introduction to the natural history of insects and related classes. Sidebars on insect behavior and ecological factors enhance the descriptive accounts. Kenji Nishida’s stunning photographs—many of which show insects in action in their natural settings—add appeal to every page. A final chapter provides a glimpse into the intriguing world of spiders, scorpions, crabs, and other arthropods.

A groundbreaking photographic field guide to almost all of Mexico's butterfly species and many of Central America's This is a revised second edition of a groundbreaking photographic field guide to the butterflies of Mexico and Central America. Written by Jeffrey Glassberg, the pioneering authority on the field identification of butterflies, the guide covers more than 2,000 species and features over 3,700 large, gorgeous color photographs, the very best images available, accompanied by authoritative facing-page text. This second edition includes more species, more than 1,500 new photos, and updated text, maps, and species names. And range maps, field marks, and host plants are included for all Mexican butterflies. The result is an ideal field guide that will enable you to identify almost every butterfly you see. A revised second edition of a groundbreaking guide, featuring more species, more than 1,500 new photos, and updated text, maps, and species names The first complete guide to Mexican butterflies Covers almost all of Mexico's more than 1,700 species, plus many Central American species, including more than two-thirds of those in Costa Rica Written by the pioneering authority on the field identification of butterflies Beautifully illustrated with more than 3800 color photographs that show almost all known Mexican species and about 90% of Costa Rican and Panamanian species Range maps, field marks, and host plants for all Mexican species Authoritative facing-page text An invaluable tool for field identification

Arthropods are the most diverse group of organisms on our planet and the tropical rainforests represent the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. This book, written by 79 authors contributing to 35 chapters, aims to provide an overview of data collected during recent studies in Australia, Africa, Asia, and South America. The book focuses on the distribution of arthropods and their use of resources in the rainforest canopies, providing a basis for comparison between the forest ecosystems of the main biogeographical regions. Topics covered include the distribution of arthropods along vertical gradients and the relationship between the soil/litter habitat and the forest canopy. The temporal dynamics of arthropod communities, habitats and food selection are examined within and among tropical tree crowns, as are the effects of forest disturbance. This important book is a valuable addition to the literature used by community ecologists, conservation biologists entomologists, botanists and forestry experts.

"This illustrated guide provides up-to-date accounts of the natural histories of over a hundred insect species found in Costa Rica, and of a few insect relatives such as spiders and crabs. Included are species that commonly seen, are ecologically important, and have a distinctive biology"--

Palms constitute one of the largest botanical families and include some of the world's most important economic plants. This book reviews the interrelationships between palms and insects. The host plants, distribution and bionomics of representative insects are discussed.

Insects and Wildlife: Arthropods and their Relationships with Wild Vertebrate Animals provides a comprehensive overview of the interrelationships of insects and wildlife. It serves as an introduction to insects and other arthropods for wildlife management and other vertebrate biology students, and emphasizes the importance of insects to wild vertebrate animals. The book emphasizes how insects exert important influences on wildlife habitat suitability and wildlife population sustainability, including their direct and indirect effects on wildlife health. Among the important topics covered are: the importance of insects as food items for vertebrate animals; the role of arthropods as determinants of ecosystem health and productivity; the ability of arthropods to transmit disease-causing agents; an overview of representative disease-causing agents transmitted by arthropods; arthropods as pests and parasites of vertebrates; the hazards to wildlife associated with using using pesticides to protect against insect damage; insect management using techniques other than pesticides; the importance of insect conservation and how insects influence wildlife conservation.

Insects of Latin America: A Photographic Guide covers all major insect groups from Mexico and the Caribbean to Argentina and Chile. Each of its 1,771 photos was examined by one of more than 200 entomologists who made the identifications. While other photographic guides have covered limited geographic areas (only tropical areas, for example) or limited parts of the fauna, this is the first photographic guide to cover all of the major insect orders from all parts of the neotropics. Included are photos from all mainland countries except Venezuela, and many of the Caribbean islands.

In this book I have tried to bring together the major developments in the study of insect populations in tropical environments. In some ways, this task has been a difficult one because conceptually it is virtually impossible to limit a discussion of insect ecology to the tropics, since the same concepts, theories, and hypoth eses concerning the mechanisms by which habitats support insect populations often apply both to temperate and to tropical regions. Thus one might argue effectively that a book such as Peter Price's Insect Ecology represents a more comprehensive treatment of insect ecology, including the tropical aspects. Yet because there has been a tremendous amount of new study on insects in the tropics in recent years, and because there has also been a strong historical interest in tropical insects, judging from early museum expeditions and medically and agriculturally oriented studies of insects in the New and Old World tropics, I believe there is a place for a book dealing almost exclusively with tropical insects. But logically so, such a book by necessity incorporates data and informa tion from Temperate Zone studies, if for no other reason than because insights into the properties of tropical environments often emerge from compariso'ns of species, communities, or faunas between temperate and tropical regions. An understanding of insect populations in the tropics cannot be divorced from a consideration of Temperate Zone populations.