Book Description

This is the most comprehensive field guide to the butterflies of Europe. The magnificent color illustrations and succinct entries cover all 440 species across, and sometimes beyond, the continent--from Lapland to North Africa, from the British Isles to Portugal to Greece, from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus. Completely up-to-date, the book includes dozens of species absent in earlier guides and covers the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, and the Aegean Islands, home to several butterflies found nowhere else in Europe.

The entries cover taxonomic nomenclature, range, distribution, description, flight period, variation, habitat, life history--including, importantly, larval host plants--and behavior. The 104 color plates feature over 2,000 illustrations, including both genders of each species and lateral views. Distribution maps accompany nearly all entries. In this journey to the haunts of the Old World's most kaleidoscopic creatures we encounter: Swallowtails and Festoons, Orange Tips, Hairstreaks and Blues, Emperors and Tortoiseshells, Fritillaries, Ringlets, Skippers, and many other delicately winged delights.

All who find butterflies beautiful will treasure this authoritative guide. Whether already afield or still at home dreaming of that trip to Europe, they will feel what the great literary lepidopterist, Vladimir Nabokov, did as a schoolboy in Russia, when, as he once recounted, he so yearned to identify one of those "delicate little creatures that cling in the daytime to speckled surfaces, with which their flat wings and turned-up abdomens blend."

*Comprehensive field guide to the 440 butterflies found in Europe
*Each species fully illustrated with paintings of the male, female, and, where appropriate, all major forms
*Over 2,000 color illustrations and more than 400 distribution maps--one for every widespread species
*Text covering taxonomic nomenclature, distribution, flight period, variation, habitat, behavior, life cycle, food plants, and conservation
*All information researched from original sources

Book Description

Beginners and longtime butterfly watchers alike will find much to celebrate in Butterflies in the Backyard. Part natural history, part gardening guide, the book contains solid information on butterfly behavior and habitats and also explains in careful detail how to attract these lovely creatures to your backyard with plants and feeders. Includes up-to-date information on migration and conservation efforts, as well as an identification guide for the most common North American species. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Amazing.
Using brilliantly colored photographs and simplistic scientific words, this book introduces children to the amazing life cycle of a butterfly. From egg to caterpillar to cocoon (chrysalis) to winged monarch the entire life of a monarch butterfly is explored. The last page of the book includes valuable information that will help teachers, parents, and other adults in answering children's questions. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Charming!
A tiny jewel studded with quotes, lines of poetry, a smattering of history and lovely pictures of many of the more common butterflies with brief information about each. A real gem and perfect gift for any buterfly lover! ... Read more

Book Description

This activity and coloring book depicts 30 native butterfly habitats--from the Everglades to Mt.Denali, Yellowstone to Central Park--in which nearly 200 species interact with native plants. ... Read more

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A fascinating, informative, and fun introduction
The effective collaboration of author Paul Opler and artist Susan Strawn, Butterflies Of North America is an educational coloring and activity book for young people, featuring word searches, word scrambles, fascinating information concerning over 150 butterfly species and where they live, and accurate artwork children can color. Inset color diagrams show the natural colors of the butterflies, and the species descriptions offer a wealth of insights such as when and where given species are found, and unusual features of each. Butterflies Of North America is a fascinating, informative, and fun introduction to these beautiful insects.
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Book Description

What an audience! Millions of bird watchers, butterfly enthusiasts, and gardeners. * Potential audience: 55 million bird watchers, millions of butterfly enthusiasts, and countless gardeners* Explanation of anatomy, life cycle, and food requirements * 15 plans for gorgeous gardens that double as friendly habitats* Gallery of plants, including regional recommendations* 236 photographs ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Beauty is more than petal-deep.
As the authors of this book point out, butterflies and hummingbirds add beauty to the garden. In my opinion, a garden made to sustain these interesting creatures is more than just pretty - it gives something back to nature. This guide describes how to attract butterflies and hummingbirds and provide essentials to keep them around. It offers many practical tips as well as background information on the species. The guide includes charts of plants which will attract and sustain hummers and butterflies throughout their lifespans, suggested garden designs, and an encyclopedia of hummingbird and butterfly species. It does not include a color photographs of each plant, but those can easily be found elsewhere. If you would like to devote a whole garden to hummers or butterflies, or just incorporate a few plants to attract them, this book is a good starting place and reference. ... Read more

Book Description

Lovely winged creatures, complemented by petite floral bouquets, decorate 2 large sheets of giftwrap and 3 matching cards. Great for a variety of craft projects, the sheets remain fresh and wrinkle-free till ready for use in a shrink-wrapped in a sturdy 9 1/4" x 12 1/4" folder (with no staples to mar the wrap). Best of all, this giftwrap is just a fraction of the price of products available in stationery stores.
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Reviews (3)

Encyclopedic Natural History. Field Guide?
This book is a superb natural history. The author has obtained information from studies in scientific journals and from experts in the field. He consulted 700 sources for information on how butterflies overwinter. There is a wealth of detail. For the Spring Azure alone, he describes four subspecies and six forms, giving appearance, range, and flight periods of each. 56 of its host plants are listed, the most common ones marked with an asterisk. There are 10 photographs of the forms. Host plants for all butterflies are listed in alphabetical order in the index with the species numbers on the same line.

There are better books for use as a field guide. This book is too big (8x10) to carry in a pocket or binoculars case. I would be afraid of damaging this large, relatively expensive book. The sheer number of photographs makes a quick tentative identification harder.

This is a book that any butterfly enthusiast should add to his library. However, he should start his library with one of the smaller guides, such as Butterflies Through Binoculars: The East, the Golden Guide, or one of the regional guides.

First Class - little more to say really
By far the best single volume covering the North American butterflies. I have only one reservation. I don't know if this is a cultural thing, but US guide books tend towards colour photos instead of drawings. For a foreigner (UK) who hasn't been brought up with the American fauna, it is nearly impossible to tell from a photo which marks on an insect's wing are characteristics of the species, and which are that-own-specific-individual-in-the-photo's unique birth marks, imperfections etc. The better of the European butterfly guide books, and most of the world's better bird books all use high quality generalized drawings/paintings.

Superb overall quality and an absolute must for anyone with the slightest serious interest.

By far the best one-volume guide to N.American Butterflies
Probably the most valuable feature of this book are its colour plates, which depict a huge amount of subspecies and variations. As the colour plates are made up of photographs and not drawings, the species have certain natural defects and thus make it easier to identify species caught in the wild. The text is also exceptional, pointing out minute differences between species and describing in great detail their natural behaviour. Another extremely useful feature is the maps, which point out the exact distribution of species throughout North America. This is a wonderful book and belongs in the library of any naturalist, scientist, or entomologist, both amateur and professional. ... Read more

Book Description

"Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man."

-Vladimir Nabokov The passion for butterflies-evident in today's explosion of butterfly imagery in fashion, jewelry, and the decorative arts-has inspired humankind throughout history. All over the world, the butterfly has been a source of wonder and a metaphor for spiritual beliefs. In this unique book, Maraleen Manos-Jones combines myth, legend, poetry, and art to explore the myriad ways in which humans have perceived this captivating creature.Butterfly goddesses have reigned in cultures as diverse as Minoan Crete and Toltec Mexico. Butterflies have appeared in the poetry of Blake and Neruda, in paintings by Bruegel, Picasso, and Warhol, and in the dances of Native Americans, Africans, and the Japanese, among others. Many have adopted the butterfly as a personal symbol, including the Emperor Augustus. With images ranging from ancient stone carvings to modern furniture, body tattoos, jeweled combs, and haute couture, this enchanting gift book-the result of nearly three decades of research-celebrates the power of one of nature's most delicate beings.MARALEEN MANOS-JONES has been involved with butterflies for nearly 30 years. She has created butterfly dances, owned a butterfly gallery, lectured on butterflies, and collected butterfly stories and art. She lives in a house surrounded by her butterfly garden in Brooklyn, New York.175 illustrations, 150 in full color, 9 x 11" ... Read more

Reviews (1)

You'll Be Happily Surprised-- and Entranced
This book succeeds both as a tremendous joy for the general reader and a serious treatment of its subject. It is perhaps the best, maybe the only, book on the market right now treating its subject well and completely. Exceeding the breadth of its title, the book actually treats the cultural significance of butterflies throughout history. This is no small feat. Butterflies have been taken by many cultures to inculcate hope, rebirth, transformation and transcendence, matters at the heart of mankind's internal concern for many millennia. Despite its masterful photography and copious illustrations, Ms. Manos-Jones's production immediately belies any notion that it is simply a "coffee table book". The chapter titles well illustrate the book's topical landscape-- for example "The Sacred Butterfly", "The Artful Butterfly", "The Verbal Butterfly", [famous] "Butterfly People", and so on. By the time you've gotten through each of the ten chapters, be you butterfly buff or butterfly scholar, you will probably be surprised that, concerning this topic, you "didn't know the half of it". It is important to point out that Ms. Manos-Jones brings to this book a well-informed knowledge both of butterflies and world environmental issues. In life, she wears another hat-- as an environmentalist associated with the important Michoacan Reforestation Fund-- a premier conservation group working to protect Monarch butterfly overwintering habitats in Mexico. Given these credentials, the book is a really wedding of Ms. Manos-Jones' professional level expertise on conservation and the pure love of her subject-- butterflies. This book can be recommended wholeheartedly to the general reader and the informed butterfly enthusiast alike. I imagine that a few scholars and historians will want to dig into it as well. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Butterfly Gardening for the South
This is a buy now book for the southern gardener who wants to encourage flocks of butterflies into their garden or who wants to know more about native plants with a butterflies view in mind. The author has extensive color pictures of the butterflies and their habits as well as cultural information about the food plants of the larvae and nector plants of the adults. She has taken beautiful pictures of the plants, butterflies, catapillar, and egg stage of almost all the butterflies she details. The information is invaluable. Many butterfly plants are so common as to be considered weeds well many of them are weeds but if you want to grow them and collect them it helps to have a color picture to identify them and cultural information about growing them. She includes layouts for garden design in each of the southern zones covered and gives alot of good organic practical gardening advice. I especially like the part where she shares her experience on how to take pictures of butterflies. Great stuff for someone who does not know alot about SLR cameras and wants an insiders advice on how to take pictures of butterflies. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening with native trees and plants as well as adapted non natives who wishes to encourage butterflies in their garden. ... Read more

Book Description

The definitive guide to the world's most recognized butterfly.

Monarch butterflies are widely distributed around the world. The two most distinct populations are located in North America -- one to the east and the other to the west of the Rocky Mountains.

Their wide distribution, coupled with their vivid orange, white and black coloring makes the monarch the most recognizable butterfly. Regrettably, in recent years, ecological changes -- specifically the loss of its feeding grounds -- are threatening the monarch's existence.

The Last Monarch Butterfly provides a thorough and essential overview of these delightful creatures and helps readers to understand their plight. The book documents the monarch's life cycle to provide a clear understanding of its natural condition including its migratory nature. Easy-to-understand text is illustrated with thirty bright, colorful photographs.

The western butterfly winters in California and the eastern butterfly winters in Mexico. Natural disasters such as a recent cold snap in Mexico imperil the already depleted monarch populations. Areas in California that once hosted the monarch are now being used for residential and industrial development. Even the vast fields of flowering weeds that supported the monarch in the northern states are depleted for new development.

The Last Monarch Butterfly is the definitive environmental reference on this endangered species. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Composed of sixty-nine boxes, Jacques Kerchache's astonishing insect collection is illustrated here for the first time. It is part of a tradition that dates back at least to the Renaissance, when, spurred on by the great voyagers and navigators, collectors created curio rooms in which fauna, flora, minerals, fossils, skulls, shells, and insects were classified and arranged. Claude Levi-Strauss rightly observed: "A bird, a beetle, a butterfly invite the same rapt contemplation that we reserve for a Tintoretto or a Rembrandt." In this entomological collection, it is Nature the artist that holds sway, transforming each insect into a work of art. Distributed on behalf of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. 85 color illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Beautiful, beautiful photos...BUT
The photographs in this book are magnificent. It succeeds as an art book.

But no information is provided about the insects, not even their names. If you wonder if you recognize an insect, there is no way for you to check. If you see an insect that you'd like to learn more about, too bad. If you'd like to use the book as a teaching tool, you can't unless you're able to identify the insects yourself. I find this to be a huge flaw.

There are other books available that have just as beautiful photos of insects but that have the courtesy to identify what you are looking at.

Beauty under the microscope!
Unbelievable it is how much beauty, intricacy, and bewilderment one can find in the small creatures around us. They fly and crawl past us, and seldom do some of us realize the magnificence of a world that goes by so easily unperceived. This book is a great request for us to pay more attention. To gaze more intently and appreciate what the hand of nature has spawned - beings equally or far more complex than ourselves. More so than we would like to admit! What bewilderment we would find if we could shrink to their size, wear their cloaks of colour, and fit into their universe.... ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Needs a metamorphasis!
To begin, this is not a book but a laminated phamplet. The idea is good but there is not enough information about the photos listed, such as, the specific areas of North America where they might be found.I also noticed that some of the colors do not appear to be correct an example being the Luna Moth being shown as yellow. While this work does have merit it was not what I expected, especially for the cost. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Educators Recommend
"One day Miss Dana brought a surprise to school-three striped caterpillars and a flowerpot. A green plant called milkweed was growing in the flowerpot." So begins this informative and charming tale about a classroom full of curious children and three caterpillars that become, in time, magnificent Monarch butterflies.

As the children watch the metamorphosis, they draw pictures and comment on the process. They also ask the questions readers would like to ask, if they could, thus allowing the author to weave tidbits of information into the story seamlessly.

We learn, for example, that when the caterpillar's skin splits for the fifth time, it is ready to become a chrysalis.

At story's end, the butterflies, after drying their wings, are set free from an open window. The children watch them go with a mixture of sadness and hope. Thankfully, the author does not end the classroom adventure there (as she might have). Rather, Miss Dana shows the children where Mexico is on a map and tells them the butterflies will eventually go there before the onset of winter. The students then write a letter to schoolchildren at a school in Chincua, Mexico, asking them to "Please take good care of our butterflies." Winter arrives and so does a letter from the students in Chincua, along with a picture of a tree laden with Monarch butterflies. "All of us looked and looked," says the narrator, "wondering which were the three butterflies we hatched in our classroom and set free to fly so far away."

Also included is an author's note which gives readers more information about Monarchs as well as an internet resource where they may go for more information. The endpapers at the book's beginning show illustrations of nine different caterpillars. Turning to the back of the book, readers are treated to colorful, detailed illustrations of the butterflies that they become.

The illustrations are watercolors that have been cut and then layered, thus creating lively, realistic three-dimensional scenes.

We took the book into a second grade classroom to read aloud. The children enjoyed it immensely and asked many thoughtful questions about caterpillars and butterflies. They were especially taken with the illustrations, poring over each page and pointing out details to each other.

A definite "must-have" for your classroom.

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Wonderful Description of the changing states of a butterfly
My preschooler loves this book. It walks through the stages of a butterfly's development in a story format. The illustrations and descriptions are perfect for helping the younger listener/reader imagine what is taking place as the caterpillar grows and changes. It even descibes the migratory patterns of the monarch butterfly. This book does a great job of conveying a lot of factual information while still maintaining the fun of a bedtime story. ... Read more