The cover alone is enough to lure you to this book! When it's followed up with the contribution of two powerhouse entomologists, you know you have a winner.
Following on the success of all the other volumes in the "....Of The World" series, it presents a very familiar format, time-tested and reader-approved.
The quality of information presented in the book is valid for insectophiles of all levels, but it is especially valuable for the butterfly lover who yearns to learn more. To understand the physiology and life history of a butterfly, beyond visual appreciation and enjoyment, takes one from novice to proficient citizen scientist. In no time at all you will understand the entire structure of a butterfly and its world, including the enchanting process of holometabolous development.
As is the case with all the other books in this collection, the coloured illustrations are superb. Every single page is festooned with mouth-watering images.
The text is presented in a straightforward, easy-to-read format, and covers everything from the simple question, "What are butterflies?" through the orders, evolution and origins, anatomy of adults and colour vision, life stages, where to find butterflies, biogeography, survival strategies, conservation, extinction, the history of studying butterflies, butterfly study today, nomenclature, new species, butterflies and society, and classification.
This is followed by sections on the families and subfamilies of butterflies according to current classification and taxonomic arrangements, with representative species from each category.
A detailed text provides salient information, along with a range map, details as to genera, distribution, habitats, size, and host plant families. As always elegant photographs complement the text. In some cases enough vegetation is visible to try to identify it from the leaves on which the butterfly is perched. This only adds to the fun!
Alfred Russell Wallace, that peripatetic discover of so many scientific truths, not the least of which was the co-discovery of the theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin, once remarked, "The study of butterflies - creatures selected as the type of airiness and frivolity - instead of being despised, will someday be valued as one of the most important branches of biological science." How prescient he was!
As I write this review, the larvae of Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) are happily chewing their way through Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and will soon be pupating. We raise them every year, as we also have done with Giant Swallowtails (Papilio cresphontes) and Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) - and you can too!
Accompanied by this book the doors to the world of butterflies will open wide. You will walk through and never look back.
I guarantee it!
Butterflies of the World: A Guide to Every Subfamily - Princeton University Press
Blanca Huertas and Shinichi Nakahara
Hardcover - US$32.00 - ISBN: 9780691265209
240 pages - 6.75 x 9.5 inches (16.875 x 23.75 cm)
Publication date: 02 September, 2025
Hello David, what a wonderful review of this book. A book like this should stand in everyones bookcase. I do have a book simular like this for butterflies of Europe.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting.
Warm regards,
Roos