Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Aphonopelma chalcodes - Desert Blond Tarantula


Report on a collection of spiders from Mexico. 3.
By Willis J. Gertsch & L. Irby Davis
American Museum Novitates 1069: 1-22, 1940

Laboratory methods for maintaining and studying web-building spiders
By Zschokke, S. & M.E. Herberstein
Journal of Arachnology 33: 205–213, 2005
Available on Dr. Zschokke's website here.

Partial abstract: "This paper aims to provide an up-to-date guide on how to best collect, keep and study web-building spiders. In particular, it describes how to obtain spiders by capturing them or by raising them from cocoons, how to keep and feed spiders in the laboratory and how to encourage them to build webs. Finally it describes how to document and analyze web building and web structure."

Spiders from the Southwestern United States with descriptions of new species
By W.J. Gertsch
American Museum of Natural History, 1935
American Museum Novitates No. 792

This paper is available online thru the AMNH Research Library:digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/handle/2246/4113/N0858.pdf

The Crab Spiders of Canada and Alaska; Araneae: Philodromidae and Thomisidae (The Insects and Arachnids of Canada, Part 5)
By Charles Dondale & James Redner
Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Publ. 1663: 1-255, 1978
Entire monograph available for free download from the Entomological Society of Canada: http://www.esc-sec.ca/aafcmono.php

(The monographs are also now available as print-on-demand books at http://www.volumesdirect.com. All the titles can be found using a search for “Agriculture Canada” or by individual title.)

Checklist of the spiders (Araneae) of Canada and Alaska
By Paquin, Buckle, Duperre, & Dondale
Zootaxa 2461: 1–170, 2010

New American spiders
By Willis J. Gertsch
American Museum Novitates 936: 1-7, 1937
Free download available from the AMNH: http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/handle/2246/3863

Spider Genera of North America with Keys to Families and Genera and a Guide to Literature (3rd edition)
By Vincent D. Roth
American Arachnological Society, 1993
(This is listed as 1994 in the World Spider Catalog, not sure why. Inside the actual book, it lists the publication year as 1993.)

First edition published in 1982 as Handbook for Spider Identification, copyright 1985 by author.

Second edition published in 1985 with same title as this edition, copyright 1985 by author.

All editions are out of print, so these can be tough to acquire. This book says that copies are available from Jon Reiskind, Dept. Zool., Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, but I contacted him a long time ago and I don't think he has any more. I had to buy my 1985 version from a used book dealer, and the 3rd edition was given to me as a gift.

Spider Genera of North America with Keys to Families and Genera and a Guide to Literature (2nd edition)
By Vincent D. Roth
American Arachnological Society, Gainesville, Florida, 1985
First edition published in 1982 as Handbook for Spider Identification, copyright 1985 by author.

Third edition published in 1993 with same title as this second edition, copyright 1993 by author. (This is listed as 1994 in the World Spider Catalog, not sure why.)

All editions are out of print, so these can be tough to acquire. This book says that copies are available from Jon Reiskind, Dept. Zool., Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, but I contacted him a long time ago and I don't think he has any more. I had to buy my 1985 version from a used book dealer, and the 3rd edition was given to me as a gift.