Research on herbivores has been dominated by studies on above-ground interactions and this book aims to partially redress the balance by synthesizing current information on agricultural and ecological aspects of root herbivory. The book consists of 11 chapters to which 24 authors contributed. The book focuses on insects and nematodes and the chapters are organized under three headings: techniques for studying root feeders, root feeders in context and root feeders in the wider ecosystem. The first two chapters cover the main ‘traditional’ techniques for studying the impacts of root herbivory and recent developments in non-invasive methods for studying root herbivores in the field and laboratory. The next six chapters focus on root herbivory in three managed (agriculture, grassland, forestry) and one natural (forest) ecosystem and present two more specific ‘case studies’, one on grape phylloxera and the other on biological control of root feeders, focusing specifically on root weevils. The chapters on agriculture and forestry also contain short ‘case studies’ on species or groups of species. The final chapters concentrate on three more general topics of current interest: which are the interactions between above-ground and below-ground herbivores, trophic interactions in the soil environment and the potential impact of climate change on root herbivores. This is a useful and interesting book containing a large amount of information. Because of space limitations and the focus on ‘case studies’ in certain chapters it is by no means comprehensive, but should provide the reader with the impetus to search for additional information elsewhere.