So, it's your first visit to Florida? You take your drink (with or without the tiny umbrella) out to the veranda and, while admiring the palm trees and tropical breezes you look up, and notice... hey, what is that? A spider web 15 feet across? And, what's that huge leggy thing in the center?! Shades of Bilbo Baggins! It must be one of Shelob's off-spring. Welcome to the tropics, where the some of the bugs actually do catch and eat the birds. And, meet your first golden orb weaver (a.k.a. the banana spider, although they aren't quite that large).
This team of authors and editors have assembled a book full of large and gorgeous color photographs, detailed life histories, and helpful identification tips about some of Florida's most under-appreciated wildlife. If you are new to Florida, your first encounter with the three-inch long golden orb weaver hanging in a web that more than twelve-feet across can be quiet a shock. Or, how about when a huge black scorpion marched across the carpet between you and the TV, apparently looking for your cat.
This inexpensive book is colorful and entertaining enough to hold almost anyone's interest, and the authors make a sincere effort to dispel the unwarranted fears that many people have about spiders and their relatives.
If you are a long-time Florida resident, but with a new interest in spiders, this book's superb photography simplifies identification of the truly dangerous, and tells you where to find them, how to get the less desireable species to look elsewhere for a homestead, and introduces you to the multitude of beneficial spider species.
The authors also throw in some news about 8-legged immigrants. Just as Florida is now home to pythons from Burma, starlings from Europe, and pepper trees from Brazil; Florida's busy ports have been bringing spiders from other continents to our state. We now have thriving populations of tarantulas from Mexico and South America, and the brown recluse has moved south with migrating retirees and is now established in Florida as well.
"Florida's Fabulous Spiders" contains answers to all the questions our average resident or visitor is likely to ask about spiders. The authors provide some relief for those with arachnophobic tendancies (the vast majority of Florida spiders are very reluctant to bite humans, and of those that might, fewer than a half dozen especially secretive species have bites that are dangerous to most people. This (or almost any book from the Florida's Fabulous series) is an ideal housewarming gift for new neighbors, or to stimulate any naturalist's (kids or grown-ups) with an interest in spiders and their kin. True, it is written for those at "entry level" but very few of the more advanced books have photographs as stunning or as abundant as these.
It's Worth the Price
I should have known this little book was not a field guide when I saw the (low) price. Still, it's a nice coffee table book and does have pictures and a brief write-up on many Florida Spiders. It left me wanting to know more, maybe three times as much, about each species.
My guess is that the author intended the book for children, not aging naturalists such as myself.
Outstanding introduction to Florida spiders
One of the authors, Dr. G. B. Edwards is curator of Arachnids and Myriapods at the Florida Division of Plant Industry. He is a well-known expert on the Salticidae (jumping spiders). This book also includes many outstanding macro photos of spiders by Pete Carmichael. The text is carefully written and edited by people who really know spiders well (unlike many popular books!). This is an excellent introduction to the major groups of spiders for people of all ages.
