Product Description

This classic guide to the butterflies of Britain and northern Europe enters its third edition as part of the authoritative Collins Guide series. This comprehensive guide to the butterflies of Britain and Europe features over 400 species, depicting both male and female insects. Species descriptions include details on taxonomic nomenclature, distribution, flight period, variation, habitat, behaviour and life cycle. Subspecies are included where there is significant variation, and distribution maps accompany each widespread species. Illustrated by Richard Lewington, the world's leading butterfly illustrator, this is an ideal field guide for travelling naturalists and butterfly enthusiasts alike and is an essential addition to every nature lover's bookshelves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22107 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review
'Richard Lewington's illustrations are magnificent!Tom Tolman's text is excellent' New Scientist 'The identification plates are without equal in any modern field guide to butterflies' Centre for Biodiversity Studies, Milwaukee Public Museum

About the Author
Richard Lewington is one of the world's leading natural history illustrators, specialising in insects and other invertebrates. He has illustrated numerous books and lives in Oxfordshire, where he works as a freelance illustrator. Tom Tolman developed an interest in botany and natural history in the 1970s and has since developed a passion for butterflies. He has an extensive collection of butterfly photographs from all over Europe, including many species whose photographs have never been published.

Customer Reviews

This could have been so much more
Having had the first edition of this book since it was hot off the press, I was eagerly waiting this latest installment; however, I am very disappointed by this edition.

It was heralded as the 'most complete guide' by the publishers; but, it is no more complete than it was in its first incarnation.
Tolman had a golden opportunity to update and improve on the best field guide to the European butterflies ever written. But he has chosen not to. The only changes are to the text/plate layout. There is no mention of the new species discovered in the past 11 years or of any distributional changes. A classic example being Real's Wood White which was found in Ireland in 2001: a species he had 8 years in which to update the text and distribution map!!!

I feel that the rendition of the plates is poorer and the figures appear slightly grainy in comparison to the original. Further why were the missing species not illustrated for the first time? At least in the original edition they were clearly marked 'not illustrated', in this book the reader has to find this out for themselves by frustratingly looking at the figures. As for errors, I have been so unimpressed by the book overall, that I have not exhaustively read it - the text appears identical to the original anyway! However, I did find it odd that the False Apollo was inserted in the Parnassius, out of any logical taxonomic order, and to compound this it is designated the 'False Festoon' on its map!

Overall, a nice book if one does not have the original, but to buy it to update your knowledge from the first edition - forget it. I would encourage anybody to search out a second hand copy of the 1997 edition, it is a better book.

I will be giving mine away, such is my disappointment.

Looking good (on the surface)
In common with the first review of the book, no sooner had I opened it than I was finding distribution maps with the incorrect species caption (the Apollo's and Festoon's are all over the place - hence the Spanish Festoon does not appear to be found in Spain according to it's map!). However I can see nothing wrong (yet) with the illustrations which seem fine. I was also glad to see that descriptions are invariably opposite the illustration of the species they refer to which I believe was not the case in a previous edition of the book. However I still find it hard to take that a book of this standing can have such glaring mistakes (with more to be found?)

Wake-up Collins!
I couldn't agree more with the reviews so far. I've written to Collins about the errors but received no reply. With an interest in all forms of wildlife/photography I try to buy the best ID books available for the knowledge they contain. I was looking forward to this new edition for my bookshelf but quickly returned it asking for a refund. Surely a book of this calibre should have been proof-read more carefully. One of the white butterfly plates was also bitmapped. A pity that such editorial errors has let down Lewington's articulate artwork.