“This is a wonderful book. In it Eberhard explores the mechanical and evolutionary aspects of spider webs from all sides. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs of webs appearing throughout. Each chapter has a down-to-earth summary that repeats the main points of the chapter. Eberhard is not afraid to rail against the many errors that infect previous work on spiders and webs, including adultophilia (the tendency to ignore the webs of juvenile spiders), typology (the eagerness to describe ‘the’ spider and its web when in reality there are many variations in the webs of any one species), and many more shortcomings. But by far the strength of the book is Eberhard’s ability to tell his readers what is needed on topics A to Z if we are to test hypotheses further. This willingness to lay out predictions that are derived from particular hypotheses on puzzling behaviors that have not been checked makes the book a gold mine for students of spider webs and indeed for all animal behaviorists.”
— John Alcock, Arizona State University, author of “Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach”
“There is only one comparable book on this topic that was published over thirty years ago, and it is not comprehensive. Eberhard’s book is an extensive, encyclopedic review of what is known (and unknown) about spider webs today. It also provides many original observations from Eberhard himself.”
— Rainer F. Foelix, author of “Biology of Spiders”
“A comprehensive book on all aspects of spider webs is long overdue, and Eberhard is one of the few biologists—if not the only one—who has the knowledge, passion, and expertise to write such a book. Very thorough and detailed, Spider Webs is of great importance to specialists in its field, especially since it not only summarizes previously published studies, but also presents new ideas and views on structure, construction, function, and evolution of spider webs and their (potential) relevance to many different fields of biology.”
— Samuel Zschokke, University of Basel, Switzerland
“Spider Webs provides both an authoritative and unique synthesis of research and still-to-be-addressed questions on spider web biology. There is no one better equipped to write a book on this subject than Eberhard. It will be a major contribution to the fields of ecology, evolution, and behavior, providing new information, new syntheses, and new insights on a broad range of topics.”
— Brent Opell, Virginia Tech
"The big book on this exciting subject, lavishly illustrated and based on over five decades of research. Eberhard answers any query about the origins, morphology and utilization of spicier webs, as well as their weavers' surprising mental and physical capabilities."
— Bookseller
“Based on half a century of study, Spider Webs is an unprecedented and very large book on [spiders’] biology, evolution, and diversity.”
— Natural History Book Service
"You would think that after centuries of studying spider webs we have a pretty good grasp of them. Yet a thorough, book-length review of their construction, function, and evolution has been missing. Eberhard has taken on that colossal task, based on his nearly fifty years of observing spiders and their webs. Some works go on to define their discipline. Spider Webs has all the trappings of becoming the arachnological benchmark. . . . It is one of those rare books that sets a discipline’s research agenda for decades to come and cannot be ignored. This book has set the bar and has set it high. For professional arachnologists this is a vital and invaluable reference work. For serious spider enthusiasts it is an absolute treasure trove. Beyond the spider community, however, there is much here of interest to ethologists and evolutionary biologists."
— Leon Vlieger, Inquisitive Biologist
“In summary, what does one get by buying the book? Spider silk is often compared to steel, weight by weight and materially speaking this book is excellent value for money at just under 2 kg weight and just under 10 cents per A4 page. Intellectually speaking, Eberhard’s book not only provides the reader with an exceptionally comprehensive, generous, and intuitive text supported by well explained illustrations that lighten the text, and overall aided by an outstanding index that allows for flitting between subjects and chapters. As importantly, there is plenty of intellectual stimulation for both spider and non-spider experts. And the honest discussion of the many open questions will provide generations of students interested in behavioral ecology with topics for research. . . . The editor and team [at the University of Chicago Press] must be congratulated not only for publishing this true labor of love but also for the superb production nowadays so rare for an academic book of this topic and scope.”
— Fritz Vollrath, ISBE Newsletter