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Written by Jesús Rivas, the undisputed expert on the biology of anacondas, this is the first authoritative book on the biology of the green anaconda, the world’s largest snake. Rivas describes his experiences over a quarter of a century exploring the secret life of these fantastic snakes, including their diet, movement patterns, life and tribulations, survival, behavior, and fascinating reproductive life. But more than just presenting facts about anacondas, Rivas tells his story about studying them in the field. Ultimately, his love for anacondas and his unorthodox approach give his voice a unique accent that makes this book stand out among other books of its kind. The rich photography and its storytelling approach make this an enjoyable and thoroughly readable book that can sit as comfortably on a coffee table as in the bookshelves of advanced scholars.

Mushrooms are the most wondrous inventions of the last billion years of evolutionary history on earth. Their overnight appearance is a pneumatic process, with the inflation of millions of preformed cells extending the stem, pushing earth aside, and unfolding a cap above the dewy grass. Once exposed, a mushroom's gills shed an astonishing 30,000 spores per second, delivering billions of microscopic particles into the air in a single day, cells that may be capable of spawning the largest organisms on the planet. Mushroom colonies burrow through soil and rotting wood. Some hook into the roots of forest trees and engage in mutually supportive symbioses; others are pathogens that decorate their food sources with hardened hooves and fleshy shelves. Among the staggering diversity of mushroom-forming fungi we find stranger apparitions including gigantic puffballs, phallic eruptions with revolting aromas, and tiny “bird's nests” whose spore-filled eggs are splashed out by raindrops. But it is the poisonous effects of a handful of fungal metabolites, and the powerful hallucinogenic qualities of others, which account for the central place of mushrooms in mythology and their commonest associations in Western culture. This book explains what mushrooms are (Chapter 1), how they work (Chapter 2), and what their underlying colonies do (Chapter 3); the harvesting and conservation of wild mushrooms and the cultivation of domesticated species are addressed in Chapters 4 and 5, the science of poisonous and hallucinatory fungi in Chapters 6 and 7, and deceptive claims about medicinal mushrooms in Chapter 8.

This book is a field guide that explores and explains the patterns of nature, providing new insight into observations of the natural world. The text offers scientifically current explanations of more than 225 observable patterns, along with a brief list of sources for further study. The descriptions add understanding of the principles and interactions that underlie these patterns, and include distinct behaviors and adaptations as well as broad distributional patterns. With about one page devoted to each observation, this book offers an ecological perspective and insight. The descriptions are grouped into 14 chapters and cover features that one may observe in individual plants and animals as well as in habitats such as mountains, wetlands, and forests. Curiosity about the world around us is a basis for human learning, and this book aims to generate interest in the many stories of the living world.

Venoms from scorpions, spiders, centipedes, ants, wasps, and bees can be very poisonous, or induce serious allergic reactions. Blood sucking mites, ticks, lice, bed bugs, kissing bugs, sand flies, biting midges, black flies, mosquitoes, snipe flies, horse flies, tsetse flies, stable flies, and fleas cause irritation. More seriously, some of them can leave behind pathogens that cause serious diseases. This volume presents the full spectrum of methods necessary for prevention of bites and stings from the worldwide variety of bloodsucking and venomous arthropods. The first step is identification of the problem by identifying the bug, knowing where the bug occurs, and deciding whether or not the problem is seriously connected to health problems. The next step is to build the bugs out of the personal environment of the home and its surrounding property. If those methods do not give complete relief, insecticides can sometimes provide the solution. Barriers like screens and doors can at least help when people are indoors. Outside, clothing can make a big difference, especially if repellents are applied to the cloth. The last resort for people exposed to bloodsucking bugs is to use repellents on the skin. This book provides information that will help in choosing the right repellent among the dozens of natural and synthetic products.