As a biodiversity hotspot in tropical Asia, Borneo is a must-visit destination of naturalists around the world. Borneo's rainforests offer more than just hornbills, orang-utans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants; they support a more spectacular myriad of insects, arachnids and other invertebrates. With rarely seen macro-photography images, we take readers on a journey of discovery of another dimension of Borneo's appeal to all nature lovers: the rich diversity of Borneo's spiders and the fascinating natural history of these enigmatic and charismatic creatures.
The increasing availability of macro-photography equipment and popularity of the social media in recent years have bred a new generation of spider enthusiasts in Southeast Asia. They are constantly documenting the morphological details and behavioural peculiarities of spiders. Although some of them have benefitted from the recent series of guidebooks on Bornean and Southeast Asian spiders, there is still a strong demand for a new book, partly because the more popular books are already out of stock. More importantly, advances in macro-photography techniques and in taxonomic studies of Sarawak and Sabah spiders in recent years have necessitated a major revision.
This book is built on the foundation of the highly popular series of guidebooks on Bornean Spiders, furnished with high quality macro-photographs, up-to-date taxonomic revisions, new distribution records, and many more pages dedicated to spiders found in Borneo. Over 540 species of spiders are illustrated with useful field identification tips, together with easy-to-understand notes on their natural history. It will be an indispensable reference for students and teachers engaged in ecological and biodiversity studies, nature lovers and macro-photographers in Southeast Asia. This will surely become a travelling companion of eco-tourists and their guides in Borneo, and a significant acquisition of the libraries of professional arachnologists worldwide.