Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity: With a Photographic Guide to Insects of Eastern North America Hardcover – June 1, 2006

This is no field guide that you will slip into your back pocket (over 700 pages most with glossy photos), but it is a great resource for studying insects. It is a good place to start, even has a good key with pictures. Once you think you know what a critter is you can usually verify it in BugGuide. Like I said, this particular book is a good place to start. Of course it doesn't have a photo of every insect in the United States, but then neither does the Smithsonian. The index in a book can make it or break it. This book has three indexes, one for Photographs, one for Common Names, and a General Index. All three are outstanding. I have no idea how many photos there are, but there are usually 9 - 10 on each page. Additionally each photo is numbered and specific information regarding the subject of the photo is provided on the same page. I could keep raving about how much I appreciate the years of work the author (Stephen A. Marshall) spent to provide this book for me, but it would be redundant and time consuming for me to do and you to read. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone interested in General Entomology. Hey, it even has a section of other Arthropods, a section about collecting, and a useful explanation of entomological jargon. Ok, I gotta quit now. I really like this book.

This book was meticulously researched and illustrated with color photographs, Insects is a landmark reference book that is ideal for any naturalist or entomologist. To enhance exact identification of insects, the photographs in this encyclopedic reference were taken in the field - not just dead pinned specimens. It enables readers to identify most insects quickly and accurately. Key fact areas are comprehensive and easy to use for anyreader.A book of invaluable resource for those who want to know more about the biology and behavior of a particular insect and for those interested in biodiversity, insect classification, and the impact of insects on commerce and human health. He has also devoted an entire chapter to non-insect arthropods. Invaluable book for all ages.

I purchased this to add to my library in my Plant Health laboratory. Wow! I wish I had purchased this book sooner! The photos are absolutely fantastic. The book is quite big and contains much more information than I expected. This is one of our most-referenced insect guides. It is an excellent resource. Buy it!

just heads up bro

To start off, I do recognize the tremendous scope and impossibility of the task which this guide undertakes. An insect guide to ANY region will, by necessity, have to leave many things out. This guide is by far the most comprehensive one available for the eastern United States (east of the Mississippi River and north of Georgia). Even so, there is reasonable room for improvement.1. This book leaves out some important and common species. Perhaps this was intentional with the logic that any incredibly common insects will easily be found on the internet or in a more basic guide. But this logic falls short when you realize that there are, in fact, quite a number of common species included.An example of such an insect that has been omitted from the guide is the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) which is an extremely important invasive house and agriculture pest. I do not have the book in front of me to provide more examples (bought it as a gift) but I recall a number of highly recognizable Saturniid moths missing, as well as numerous other common representatives of various families.2. The photographs. I must say that I found the pictures in the beetle section to be excellent. For the majority of the book, however, picture quality ranged from pretty good to just OK. Shots were often taken from too far away, not providing enough detail on the insect. (The dragonfly section comes to mind.) For many species, I felt that I could find a much higher-quality picture simply by doing a Google search or looking it up on the Bug Guide website.In one case, for the mourning cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) the only picture provided was of the underside of the wings. While the underside is notable for its surprisingly drab, camouflaging pattern, it hardly makes sense to omit the upper surface of the wing, which is most easily used for identification (and incredibly beautiful, but that's besides the point).3. Now I'm partial towards Hemiptera (particularly the superfamily Fulgoroidea), so just bear with me if I seem nit-picky.The family Fulgoridae is omitted. Seeing as the book uses the superfamily Fulgoroidea, it seems silly to leave this family out. It is not a common family, but most certainly occurs in the region. It's just the type insect that a person might need this book to help identify. I think a true fulgorid may actually be included under the family Dictypharidae, but again, I don't have the book with me to check this.The book treats the genus Acanalonia as members of the family Issidae. This is wrong. They belong to the family Acanaloniidae.The relatively common genus Rhynchomitra is omitted from Dictyopharidae.The most common member (by far) of the family Delphacidae, Delphacodes puella, is omitted. A number of far less common Delphacids are included. These should probably be scrapped to make room for more common species.I'll leave it at that for now, and perhaps make edits when I have access to the book. Again, this is a very thorough book, but its omission of certain groups is disappointing. Picture quality can be better. If you aren't sure about getting this book, just get the National Geographic guide to start and see how that works for you.

Even though the book is designated to be for the Northeast US and Canada, it is useful for all of North America. Order and Family descriptions are excellent as well as the wealth of photographs. Excellent key and very good taxonomic descriptions. Very well researched. This is now one of my 3 favorite insect guides of the 25+ insect guides that I have. This book is for the casual as well as the professional insect aficionado. Also note that the book is getting harder to find at a reasonable price.

Excellent book! Well indexed. Hundreds of useful photos of insects in the region. Helpful text with discussions of various insect orders, families, genera, etc. I would definitely buy it again, but I would hope for a little more care with the packaging for shipment. Certainly not the author’s or the publisher’s fault, but my copy arrived a bit “beaten-around-the-edges”, so I worry a little about the durability of the binding. But if you’re interested in insects of eastern NA, this is a must-have book!

I bought this book for an entomology course and I refer to it all the time. Great reference for insects of Eastern North America, full of excellent color photos. The visual keys in the end of the book are useful, though (as with most insect keys) sometimes it is hard to see the characters it's referring to.

super detailed

I don't think you'll find a better valued textbook than this behemoth. It is filled with gorgeous images, it is incredibly informative and it's cheap so even the lowliest of students can afford it. I typically take every opportunity I can to avoid buying textbooks, but this one is worth it. It's beautiful

I like taking macro photographs of insects, and this is my go-to book for identifying something I don't recognize. The photographs are clear, and large enough to make out details. There is a lot of information about the various species shown, although given the space available it can't be exhaustive. This is definitely not a field guide, however! It is a large, thick book that needs to be handled carefully to avoid too much stress on the binding. I generally store it spine down on the shelf.

Pages all in good shape. A bit ragged and dog-eared at some points. But overall useable and what I needed. Recall, this is Steve Marshall's (legend in the field) book, so it's on YOU if you don't get it.

Wonderful book for identification and info on orders, suborders, family's and subfamilies. I bought it to help with my insect collecting. Came in handy during labs aswell. Fast shipping. And great price for the resources.