by David Penney

Siri Scientific Press (2009) 978-0-9558636-3-9 RRP £15.00

80 pp, 210 x 150 mm, soft cover, 172 colour photographs

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From the back cover
The spiders and other arachnids of West Africa are poorly known and this is particularly true of the Gambian fauna. At least nine different arachnid orders are now known to occur in the country and all of them 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 a great deal 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 here is to provide basic information on the ecology, behaviour and identification of common Gambian arachnids likely to be encountered with reasonably minimal effort, in the hope that it will form a basis for more intensive future biodiversity research. The author is a world recognized arachnologist and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester. He has spent several years in The Gambia and is also the author of several other field guides in addition to numerous scientific papers.

Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction & scope
Why study spiders?
Classification & anatomy
Enemies of spiders
Spider families: Araneidae, Cithaeronidae, Corinnidae, Ctenidae, Deinopidae, Dictynidae, Eresidae, Filistatidae, Gnaphosidae, Hahniidae, Hersiliidae, Linyphiidae, Lycosidae, Miturgidae, Mysmenidae, Nephilidae, Ochyroceratidae, Oecobiidae, Oonopidae, Oxyopidae, Palpimanidae, Philodromidae, Pholcidae, Pisauridae, Prodidomidae, Salticidae, Scytodidae, Segestriidae, Selenopidae, Sparassidae, Tetragnathidae, Theridiidae, Thomisidae, Uloboridae, Zodariidae
Other Arachnids
     Solifugae
     Amblypygi
     Thelyphonida & Schizomida
     Scorpiones
     Pseudoscorpiones
     Acari
     Ricinulei
     Opiliones
     Further reading
     Index to genera cited