I am very aware that insects are a huge group of animals so I am mostly looking for a college level textbook that offers a comprehensive guide on all the orders of insects to help me find the one I would like to focus on later. I have no prior knowledge other than some biology focused youtube channels since my major is completely unrelated to biology in general, let alone entomology specifically.
i am once again shilling for Dr Stephen Marshall’s Insects textbook, used in the university of guelph’s insect courses. it’s gorgeous, hardcover, gloss paper and coloured pictures, it’s got a dichotomous key at the back for keying ur insect to order, it’s got phylogeny, and it’s freaking under 100 CAD. it also has one million (approx.) fun facts about specific bugs. it is biased towards insects of eastern north america but it still covers orders and some families that aren’t found there, as well as a brief overview of non insect terrestrial arthropods.
bonus: he also has similar books for beetles, flies, and hymenoptera!! collect them all!
When I tried to search for this book the first results that I saw were from amazon. I come from a country where stores like amazon aren’t really an option because often the shipping costs are higher than the item you are ordering, what other stores would you recommend to purchase this book?
i found this` website which sells secondhand books (since it’s a university textbook there are a few secondhand copies floating around although most ppl i know who took the course kept theirs). unfortunately u cant buy it from the university website without enrolling there, although they do have the beetles edition in the public bookstore. i think unfortunately besides that amazon is the only way :(
agree with this, although i live in the eastern US (and must admit it’s been over a decade since i read the text). the images provide a great quick reference for narrowing down an insect to family.
the entomology textbook i used in a college course was borror & delong’s study of insects. i don’t remember much about that one except that it had a very helpful key to orders.
wait i also found this website
You know whats funny, traveling to Germany to buy the book there and back to Serbia is cheaper than ordering it on amazon. I am not joking I am consitering it as an option, also since you aren’t European you don’t know of any alternatives focused more on European insects?
I checked out both websites you provided and it is much cheaper than amazon, I’ll consiter them for sure, thank you so much for your responses.
Thats the one I see the most people recommend, but the prices of it vary from 25 dollars to 300, why is that?
The US market for college textbooks is wild and prices vary extremely based on the age and condition of the copy. I’m not familiar with this book in particular, but I would bet that’s what’s going on. Most expensive would be brand new, cheapest would be a few editions out of date with some one else’s highlighting or margin notes
Edit: not really textbooks, just intros for general range for here. Anything more specific is like super specific.
The National Park Visitor centre I work at sells all the books in the “A photographic Guide to X of New Zealand” https://upstartpress.co.nz/product-category/non-fiction/a-photographic-guide-to-series/
The insect one is a good base for insects, and the spider is more than enough for non arachnid specialists.
Which is for most people a nice mix between not too simple, but also deep enough to cover most of what any hobbiest could want to know. However if you arent NZ specific (Which I doubt you are) it is unlikely to help, unless there is a similar series for your country.
I also used Borror and Delong back in college, but that was 35 years ago. The grad students used to call it “Boring and Too-long”.
Its really sad that we live in a world with such a huge paywall for learning
I highly doubt there is anything for my country because I am from Serbia and so far I mostly found used copies of old Yugoslavian textbooks which are really outdated. Thats why im looking for something for Europe in general, and even tho this is currently my hobby I hope that one day I’ll be able to get a second degree more related to my hobbies.