Coming soon: Pocket Field Guide to Common Flowers of The Gambia.
Purchase all three available Gambian titles together and save on postage!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Penney D. 2009.
Field Guide to Wildlife of The Gambia: an introduction to common flowers & animals. Soft cover 120 pages 21 x 15 cm 554 colour photos. ISBN 978-0-9558636-1-5.
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Penney D. 2009.
Field Guide to Butterflies of The Gambia, West Africa. Soft cover 80 pages 21 x 15 cm 235 colour photos. ISBN 978-0-9558636-2-2.
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Penney D. 2009.
Common Spiders and Other Arachnids of The Gambia, West Africa. Soft cover 80 pages 21 x 15 cm 172 colour photos. ISBN 978-0-9558636-3-9.
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Penney D. 2008.
Dominican Amber Spiders: a comparative neontological approach to identification, faunistics, ecology and biogeography. Soft cover 176 pages 24 x 17 cm 88 colour photos 11 black & white photos 14 colour illustrations 224 greyscale illustrations. ISBN 978-0-9558636-0-8.
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Dominican amber spiders: from a pre-publication academic review:
In summary, this book will be of considerable interest beyond the Dominican amber spider world and represents a very important contribution to studies on Caribbean biogeography and palaeobiogeography, the literature on amber, the fauna of Hispaniola (both fossil and extant), and an identification guide for workers in the Caribbean region. David Penney is undoubtedly the world expert in this field and has compiled a comprehensive synthesis with beautiful illustrations on almost every page, making it a pleasure to the eye. The information is sound and reliable, the bibliography extensive and complete, and the text is authoritative. There is no other work available quite like it and it should be on the shelves of academic libraries and museums, in addition to those of people with a general interest in amber or spiders, both amateur and professional.
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Gambia wildlife field guide: summaryThe Gambia, located on the coast of tropical West Africa supports a diverse range of habitat types, from forests to mangrove swamps. It has a rich and biodiverse biota, which for some groups such as birds and mammals is relatively well known. However, for groups such as arachnids and most insect orders very little information is available. In this relatively small volume, the author provides close-up macrophotographs and notes on the biology of more than 500 non-marine species, including those most likely to be seen by the vigilant nature lover during a short visit to the country. Many of the species represent the first records for the country and several will almost certainly be new to science. The aim is for the book to be used for identification in the field, so text has been kept to a bare minimum. It is a most for anybody with even a passing interest in wildlife of The Gambia and West Africa in general.
From an independent reviewer:
"An Essential Companion When Visiting The Gambia: This is an amazing little book that gives such a range of wildlife as
you are likely to see in The Gambia! The pictures are really clear,
each one being accompanied by brief but entirely adequate info, with a
minimum of the 'technical stuff'! Whether you're a wildlife enthusiast
or 'just a regular tourist', this book is a must to take to The Gambia
- either as a guide for yourself, a present for a friend who lives
there, or ... as a donation to a local school!"
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Common spiders & Other Arachnids of The Gambia, West Africa: summary
The spiders and other arachnids of West Africa are very poorly known and this is particularly true of the Gambian fauna. At least nine different arachnid orders occur in the country and all of these are included in this introductory work. They include spiders, harvestmen, mites and ticks, camel spiders, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, tailless whip scorpions, vinegaroons and the highly unusual hooded tick spiders, which represent new records for the country and the northernmost records on the continent. There is still much we do not know about the Gambian arachnid fauna, including the true diversity of species that occur within the country. Indeed, most of the families included in this book represent the first records for this part of Africa. The aim is to provide basic information on ecology, behaviour and identification of Gambian arachnids likely to be encountered with little effort, in the hope that it will form a basis for more intensive biodiversity studies in the future.
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