Yet another outcome of this impressive series landed on my desk earlier this year. This time it is truly a behemoth if one considers its size, coverage and impact on biodiversity studies on the Arabian Peninsula and far beyond.
     Thirty-seven chapters prepared by 57 world-class experts from 18 countries deal with 57 families of arachnids, crustaceans and insects, both terrestrial and aquatic. A good half of these families were not previously recorded from the United Arab Emirates. Three genera and 103 species are described as new to science, and several dozens of other nomenclatural novelties have been introduced. According to the the Introduction to the volume, 469 species are added to those already recorded in the country.
     Taxonomic chapters still follow the standard developed earlier; a brief introduction is followed by a scrupulous systematic account for each family with relevant comments on biology and distribution of species, discussion, and the essential, often abundant, references. Twenty-nine identification keys boost up the value of 11 chapters. Particularly impressive are sections dealing with Braconidae, Formicidae, Crabronidae and Sphecidae, whose keys provide coverage beyond the UAE. In general, a broad involvement of material from outside the UAE (and often from outside Arabia) is a golden thread that runs through the entire volume and makes it a must-to-have publication for anyone who works on either Palaeartic or Afrotropical arthropods, or both. The book is generously illustrated with 442 full-colour plates and 125 sets of black-and-white line-art drawings and photographs. Authors of photographs, as well as graphics editors must be highly commended for the excellent job done.
     The volume is finished off with a list of georeferenced localities mentioned in the book, and with indexes, separately compiled for newly published taxa and for other zoological names. ...

To cite this paper: Mostovski, M. 2011. 'ARTHROPOD FAUNA OF THE UAE. Volume 4.' Editor Antonius van Harten. African Invertebrates 52 (2): 595-596.