DID you know there are more than 350,000 beetle species in the world, and 30,000 of them are in Australia?
Or that funnelweb spider venom won't kill dogs or cats, but it can kill humans, or even that daddy long-leg spiders hunt and eat redbacks.
- AUSTRALIAN BACKYARD NATURALIST By Peter Macinnis National Library of Australia rrp $29.95
Such facts - and many, many more - can be found in Australian Backyard Naturalist.
The book is written for school-age children, particularly those with a penchant for collecting flora and fauna, however creepy (ant farms are one thing, but a collection of dead snails, flies and daddy long-legs is another - as is the case with my nephew).
While it is jam-packed with trivia and educational facts - including an introduction to the biology and ecology of a group of animals - there are also projects on catching or finding unsuspecting critters.
To catch small lizards you'll need a jar, small stones, a board and food scraps. Then follow the instructions on how to trap your experiment. There's also details on making nest boxes for possums or birds, making a frog pond, catching and keeping spiders and breeding flies.
And to ensure it's not all science stuff, chapters also include the story of a naturalist, such as German Amalie Dietrich, who lived in the bush, collecting, preparing and preserving specimens in the 1860s.
Published by the National Library of Australia, there are captivating images, including sketches from early explorers.
