Unique strategies are necessary for survival in the desert. This book describes how spiders, insects and other invertebrates have adapted to such extreme environmental conditions.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 1.1 Energetics.- 1.2 Deserts and Their Environments.- 1.3 The Deserts of the World.- 1.4 Desert Invertebrates.- 2 Foraging: The Acquisition of Energy.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Optimal Foraging.- 2.3 Sit-and-Wait Foragers.- 2.4 Patterns of Active Foraging.- 2.5 Factors Influencing Foraging.- 2.6 Biotic Interactions and Foraging.- 2.7 Interactions of Factors.- 2.8 Differences Among Ant Colonies in Foraging Activity.- 2.9 Role of Learning and Memory in Foraging and Food Processing.- 2.10 Apportionment of Foraging and other Activities.- 2.11 Foraging Success.- 3 Metabolism: The Expenditure of Energy.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Metabolism and Temperature.- 3.3 Metabolism and Water.- 3.4 Metabolism and Activity.- 3.5 Metabolism and Body Size.- 3.6 Metabolism and Sex.- 3.7 Metabolism and Life-History Stage.- 3.8 Metabolism and Biological Rhythm.- 3.9 Metabolism and Depth in Ground.- 3.10 Group Effects on Metabolism.- 3.11 Depressed Metabolism as a Desert Adaptation.- 4 Budgeting of Energy.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Ingestion.- 4.3 Digestion.- 4.4 Assimilation.- 4.5 Maintenance and Activity.- 4.6 Respiratory Quotients.- 4.7 Growth.- 4.8 Reproduction.- 4.9 Egestion.- 4.10 Energy Budgets.- 4.11 Energetics of Different Life-History Stages.- 4.12 Energy Expended in Desert Adaptation.- 5 Storage: The Hoarding of Energy.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Food Storage.- 5.3 Body Reserves.- 5.4 Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.- 6 Quiescence and Dormancy: Waiting Out Energy Shortages.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Quiescence and Dormancy.- 6.3 Diapause.- 6.4 Anhydrobiosis.- 6.5 Encystment of Protozoans.- 6.6 Risks of Dormancy.- 7 Migration and Nomadism: Tracking Energy Sources.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Orthopteran Movements.- 7.3 Other Nomadic Insects in Deserts.- 7.4 Migration on a Microscale.- 8 Community Dynamics: The Flow of Energy.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Community Structure.- 8.3 Food Webs: Pathways of Energy Flow.- 8.4 Trophic Structure.- 8.5 Quantitative Cycling of Energy and Nutrients.- 8.6 Interaction of Climatic and Biotic Factors in Cycling.- 9 Overview.- References.