Includes 50 species, for each of which a short diagnosis and detailed information on the taxonomy, nomenclature, geographic distribution, life habits, hosts and parasites are given. The book contains keys from family level to species and is finely illustrated with over 100 black and white drawings, almost all of which are originals by the author. Additionally 4 plates show 35 representative species.
Lukas de Blois is professor of ancient history at the Radboud University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands. He has published books and articles on the history of the Roman Empire in the third century A.D., the history of the Late Roman Republic, ancient historiography (Sallust, Tacitus, Cassius Dio), Plutarch's biographies, and Greek Sicily in the fourth century B.C. He has also published a manual (L. de Blois & R.J. van der Spek, Introduction to the Ancient World, 1997).