Invertebrates for Exhibition Book, includes Mantodea chapter.

[Orin]

Invertebrates for Exhibition, Insects, Arachnids, and Other Invertebrates Suitable for Display in Classrooms, Museums, and Insect Zoos

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This text includes display and husbandry details for various invertebrates commonly employed in invertebrate education. Vampire crabs, millipedes, rhinoceros beetles, whipspiders, centipedes, red-eyed devil katydids, terrestrial isopods are just a few of the items covered. More than 200 color photos, 146 pages. Softbound. $44.95. Priority shipping $4.95

You can also order through Amazon, B & N, and Amazon UK.

If you are in New Zealand, South Africa, China, Japan, most of Europe, and many other countries, you can order this book from BookDepository in the UK, and get free shipping.

 

[minard734]

What about the US? I'd like to get a copy this December possibly. Any previews?

 

[Orin]

Sorry, it's available NOW in the US through BIC, Elytra and Antenna, Amazon, B &N. You can find sample pages here: http://www.coachwhipbooks.com/titles/invertebrates-exhibition.html

 

[HoldThePickle]

I work for an AZA accredited zoo. Does this book happen to cover/give tips for the legal issues?? As in tips on what certifications and requirements are needed? Thanks Orin.

 

[Orin]

Most animals covered are native or do not need permits like silkworms and isopods. You have to get information from the permit agent, requirements and species covered are relatively fluid and not written down anywhere. Last I heard (2009 W. W.) they still give permits to people who used to work for insect zoos to keep the animals at home after they retire.

 

[PhilinYuma]

I got this book. 145pp paperback, heavily illustrated with color pics, $50 from Elytra and Antenna with Priotity.I used PayPal.

The publisher, Coachwhip, a small press that puts out a lot of non-copyright reprints as well as some good natural history titles, has chosen to set a price on this book that is much higher than most books of this size and format, perhaps because it is designed for a rather select audience.Everything is relative, though, and irs price compares favorably with a carton of cigarettes, a half barrel of decent domestic beer or a half gram of, well, whatever you fancy, and it will last much longer and cause fewer side effects..

The author has already published a number of titles that deal exclusively with some of the arthropds mentioned here, including mantids, phasmids, cockroaches (the AllPet book), and this book is not meant to replace them. Seventeen types of arthropod, each represented by a number of species, are covered here according to the same format: display, background and husbandry. I had expected to see more detail on display, but this work is written for folk, like curators of insect zoos, who most likely already have their own setups.

I guess that the major question for members of this forum is whether such a specialized book is worth buying for the general reader. Actually, I think that it serves forum members very well. Many of us have glass terrariums of the kind and size that will work well for many of these critters. For anyone interested in keeping something in addition to mantids, this will provide an excellent and well illustrated overview and point out what is easily raised, like the beetle-mimic cockroach, or hardly worth all the hard work, like the hornworm sphinx moth caterpillar. The reader can then buy a more specialized book (and subscribe to Invertabrates Magazine, of course) for more details. Also, Orin has an engaging style and seems to have been assaulted by more insects than I have seen. I should also point out that many of his books have contained pictures of cute little girls (daughters? passing strangers?) holding some particularly grotesque creature and smiling happily or bravely, and this one continues that tradition.

So yes, buy this book, or better yet, have someone get it for you for the upcoming holidays.

 

[Orin]

Hi Phil,

The books is a bit more than some other titles from that publisher because it's in full color. It would be cheap in black and white. Entomology texts are often more expensive than this in black and white because the limited audience means the per book production cost is extremely high. I couldn't make one of my little books full color for the price of this big one. Color ink remains expensive and Made in the USA means people who make the book have a right to at least minimum wage.

I thought the specific caging concerned outlined for each species was much more informative than a few chapters spent not on bugs but on silly pictures of houseplants and empty plastic cups and aquariums.

I have daughters and a niece.