With around one million species, insects and their allies are by far the most successful, variable and bizarre group of living things to have evolved on our planet. Yet much of their biology continues to remain a mystery. In this definitive and beautifully written book, Christopher O'Toole has compiled an authoritative overview of all the world's terrestial anthropods. Written by the world's leading experts in entomology, the accounts are accessible to both scientific and general readers. Taking each group in turn, from millipedes to mantids and from spiders to scorpians, this volume provides a summery of the current scientific understanding of this fascinating group of animals. Exceptionally illustrated, with over 700 photographs and specially commissioned artwork, illuminating the text, this work is the one stop guide to the host of largely unseen 'mini-beasts'that share our world.