Product Description

A wonderful butterfly book, the first to cover all the adult forms, including subspecies, found in the British Isles. It provides clear directions and field tips on where to find them (incl. OS grid references), as well as details of identification and behaviour, and is complemented with stunning photographs of living specimens of all the taxa in full colour. This volume is supported by Butterfly Conservation in their efforts to protect the butterfly fauna of these islands, whilst at the same time, encouraging greater awareness of their existence and beauty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326228 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-05
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
Adrian Riley has compiled a great butterfly guide here, treating them at subspecies level in detail. --Rob Hume, RSPB, 2009

This work represents the publication of the life work of the author and, perhaps surprisingly, is the first time that all 59 breeding British and Irish species and their subspecies have been collated into one invaluable field guide... This book can be thoroughly recommended to a diverse audience, from the amateur lepidopterist to the professional ecologist. --The Biologist, 2008

I consider this to be one of the great works of the decade in its field, and am sure it will be considered a reference work for many years to come alongside the works of Frohawk, South and Ford. --UK Butterflies, 2008

Customer Reviews

Excellent for amateur and professional alike
I would agree with the published reviews from Biology (see above). This is an excellent work, with the enthusiasm that the author obviously has for this subject exuding from every page. The species and subspecies listed represent all of the current known species, with clear photographs that show the insect with wings folded down and up, allowing ease of identification. The text is concise and allows a good grasp of the natural history for each species, including sites where the butterflies can be seen in the wild.

I would recommend this title for those with an amateur interest in the butterflies of Britain and Ireland, but there is also a lot of information that professionals will find useful too. It is not a dry read and the quality of the images, the text, and the price set this above the rest of the similar titles available.

Enjoy!

A missed opportunity
I suspect that this book has fallen between two stools or that it has suffered over-extensive editing. There are some useful aspects but also, unfortunately, significant omissions and errors.

In general, the treatment of forms etc is superficial and I was left disappointed that an opportunity has been missed to properly cover a neglected area. The description of forms is very lightweight with no comparative diagrams or sketch maps and the photographs are aesthetic rather than scientific or even comparative. To read the book, one thinks time and again about points that should have been included. It would have been so much better to have extended Thomson's (1980) excellent but geographically-restricted treatment. Perhaps this was due to extensive editing to keep the cost down or to maintain appeal to an audience of beginners but a much more rigorous treatment would have well justified the additional cost. The invention of new common names for the forms is a moot point but I personally found it very distracting and confusing.

I ordered this book as soon as I saw its title but if I'd had opportunity to see it first I doubt I would have bought it.