Field Guide to the Spiders of California and the Pacific Coast States (California Natural History Guides)

With over 40,000 described species, spiders have adapted to nearly every terrestrial environment across the globe. Over half of the world's spider families live within the three contiguous Pacific Coast states-not surprising considering the wide variety of habitats, from mountain meadows and desert dunes to redwood forests and massive urban centers. This beautifully illustrated, accessible guide covers all of the families and many of the genera found along the Pacific Coast, including introduced species and common garden spiders. The author provides readers with tools for identifying many of the region's spiders to family, and when possible, to genus and species. He discusses taxonomy, distribution, and natural history as well as what is known of the habits of the spiders, the characters of the families, and references to taxonomic revisions of the pertinent genera. Full-color plates for each family bring to life the incredible diversity of this ancient arachnid order "A user-friendly guide to identifying and understanding the spiders of the Pacific Coast. There are 67 families of spiders found in North America, and 59 of them can be found in California. This field guide will cover all 59 of those families, including introduced species and common garden spiders--those will be given extra coverage. Each family is reviewed including details of their identification, taxonomy, distribution, and natural history. There will be a full color plate for each of the families."-- Provided by publisher