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Insects and other arthropods

Book recommendations on insects and other arthropods

English
Detail of the book cover
Photo: National Geographic
Book cover of the Backyard Guide to Insectes & Spiders of North America
  • Book cover of the Backyard Guide to Insectes & Spiders of North America
  • Detail of the Insects of North America book cover
  • Common Spider of North America book cover

If you’re looking for information on a particular species or entomology in general, we recommend these books. This list includes field guides, manuals, essays, children’s books, and other works on nature.

Most of these books are available at bookstores and libraries. This is not an exhaustive list — you’ll find additional suggestions in our English book recommendations.

Field guides to insects and other arthropods

Backyard Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America

Insects of North America

Common Spiders of North America

Caterpillars of Eastern North America

Bumble Bees of North America

Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates: A Guide to North American Species

Manuals, essays, and other reference works

The Complete Insect

Pollination: The Enduring Relationship between Plant and Pollinator

Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects

Metamorphosis: How Insects Are Changing Our World

All You Need to Know about Spiders

Children’s books on insects

Ultimate Bugopedia, 2nd Edition

Encyclopedia of Insects : an illustrated guide to nature's most weird and wonderful bugs

Respect the insect : Meet the bugs who clean, tend, and feed the world

A Bug’s World

Other books on nature

Culture: The Insect Epiphany : How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture

Nature observation: Naturally Curious: A Photographic Field Guide and Month-By-Month Journey Through the Fields, Woods, and Marshes of New England

Biophilia: Last Child in the Woods

Biophilia: Edward O. Wilson: Biophilia, The Diversity of Life, Naturalist