From spiders that lasso their prey to ants that kill elephants, these 24 essays discuss a wide variety of insects and arachnids: dragonflies, wasps, walking sticks, emperor moths, cicadas, beetles, butterflies, honey bees, and the praying mantis. Contributors include Jean Henri Fabre, Donald Culross Peattie, William Beebe, Nobel Laureate Maurice Maeterlinck, Pulitzer Prize-winner Edwin Way Teale, and others.
Charles Neider (1915-2001) edited Tolstoy: Tales of Courage and Conflict, Essays of the Masters, Man Against Nature: Firsthand Accounts of Adventure and Exploration, and Great Shipwrecks and Castaways: Firsthand Accounts of Disasters at Sea.