Britain's Spiders : A Field Guide

A comprehensively updated edition of an identification guide that was named a Guardian Best Nature Book of the Year

Now in a comprehensively revised and updated new edition, Britain’s Spiders is a guide to all 38 of the British families, focussing on spiders that can be identified in the field. Illustrated with a remarkable collection of photographs, it is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, including those new to spider identification. This book pushes the boundaries of field identification for this challenging group, combining information on features that can be seen with the naked eye or a hand lens with additional evidence from webs, egg sacs, behaviour, phenology, habitats and distributions. Individual accounts cover 404 species―all of Britain’s “macro” spiders and the larger money spiders, with the limitations to field identification clearly explained. This new edition includes nine species new to Britain, many recent name changes, updated distribution maps and species information, new guides to help identify spider families and distinctive species, and the latest species checklist.

• A guide to spider families, based on features recognizable in the field, focussing on body shape and other characteristics, as well as separate guides to webs and egg-sacs
• Detailed accounts and more than 700 stunning photographs highlight key identification features for each genus and species, and include information on status, behaviour and habitats
• Up-to-date distribution maps, and charts showing adult seasonality
• Introductory chapters on the biology of spiders, and where, when and how to find them, including equipment needed in the field
• A complete list of the spiders recorded in Britain, indicating the ease of identification as well as rarity and conservation status
• Information on how to record spiders and make your records count, and guidance on how to take your interest further
• New to this edition: coverage of nine species new to Britain, updated species information and distribution maps, identification guides to spider families and distinctive species, and the latest species checklist

Lawrence Bee is an ecological consultant and educator and the author of the Field Studies Council's Guide to House and Garden Spiders. Geoff Oxford, a biologist who taught at the University of York for more than four decades, is an authority on spider colour variation and speciation. Helen Smith is a conservation biologist who leads the conservation programme for the UK’s endangered Fen Raft Spider. This book is produced in collaboration with the British Arachnological Society, of which all three authors are active members.