Insects Books

This is an excellent choice for any butterfly enthusiast. John Acorn, host of the television series "Acorn the Nature Nut" (my favorite TV show), provides a valuable and entertaining resource for all nature nuts. Don't let the title fool you - many of the species covered are wide-ranging and I find the guide useful in Georgia as well. Some of my favorite features of the book include the beautiful photographs of live specimens, tips on butterfly watching and photography, gardening for butterflies, and how to catch and release butterflies without hurting them. It also includes anecdotes from the author about how he found many of the species he photographed for the book. It is written in a conversational style without sacrificing scientific accuracy. A must-read!

The book contains excellent colour pictures of the Australian Butterflies, including BW plates under the species texts which are really useful. The text contains upto date information under the species accounts, but the general biology chapters remain similar to Common & waterhouse, with a few new inclusions, such as a section on photography. The book is esential for all with an interest in Australian Butterflies.

The most perfect book about butterflies in a specific region ever made! It contains the latest information about all butterflies in Canada and it is well illustrated with 32 great colour plates covering all species (I think). This is the only book you need about butterflies in Canada.

Description of butterflies of North America,Alaska and Hawaii. With 97 color plates and index,633 pages. Detailed illustrations of markings and variations. Text gives detailed description of adult and early stages as well as distribution.

The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea - Their Systematics and Biology - Dr Michael Parsons (736 pages, 26 B/W plates, 136 colour photos)

This is a marvellous book and is long overdue. The butterflies of PNG include some of the largest and most magical butterflies in the world and Dr Parsons has researched his subject thoroughly for more than 15 years, and was a senior entomologist in the Wildlife Division in Papua New Guinea from 1979 - 1984.

The book is divided into two parts plus an extensive bibliography, a glossary, index, line drawings, (selected) genitalia, 11 appendices, 57 text figures, 8 tables and 136 colour photographs, including 32 of early stages (the photograph of a fully grown Queen Alexandra's Birdwing caterpillar on a man's hand is awesome).

Part 1 has 11 very comprehensive chapters: Scope & Format; New Guinea Past & Present; World Faunal Regions & Butterfly Diversity; Origins & Composition of the New Guinea Butterfly Fauna; A History of Butterfly Collecting in New Guinea; Butterfly Conservation & Commerce in PNG; Aspects of Butterfly Ecology in PNG; Mimicry in New Guinea Butterflies; Collection & Study; Adult Structure; Classification & Nomenclature.

Part 2 lists and describes over 820 species by family and there is a checklist of 959 species so far discovered on the island of New Guinea and its satalite archipelagos. Not only are descriptions of all stages given, but also a history of each species from when it was first described to the present. Known ranges, foodplants of larvae and habits are also given. Some species, notably the birdwings, have distribution maps. This section brings the serious entomologist bang up to date with the subject and also provides the enthusiastic novice with a book that will lead him or her through the wonderful PNG butterflies without losing the reader in a sea of technical jargon.

The colour plates illustrate nearly 3000 specimens, depicting all the major forms and morphs of PNG's butterflies, many natural size. The 32 plates of early stages show nearly 400 photographs of eggs, larvae and pupae, as well as some adults photographed in the field and clearly demostrate the diversity of forms these take.

I can thoroughly recommend this book, and although the price is high, it is the result of many years study by an acknowledged expert and will be the standard text on PNG butterflies for years to come.

Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest is a field guide beautifully illustrated with color photography throughout. Covering 118 of the most commonly encountered butterflies in Washington, Oregon, and parts of California, Nevada, Idaho, and Canada, Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest offers a quick summary of facts as well as an unmistakable color image of each species featured - many species also have a photograph of the butterfly in caterpillar or cocoon form as well. An easy-to-use guide for learning where and when to observe butterflies, and how to identify male and female adults as well as caterpillars, pupae, and eggs. Enthusiastically recommended for amateur butterfly enthusiasts and field professionals alike.

When I purchased this book at a "half-price" bookstore, I thought "I can't go wrong for the price I paid." Boy, was I ever surprised. My $1.50 has gone a long way. My 4-year-old loves "reading" along with this book during trips. The information is presented clearly, succinctly and appropriate for his age. I even learned a few things about butterflies. It introduces the life cycle of the butterfly, explains metamorphosis and camouflage and gives lots of colorful examples. Great entertainment and instructional too!.

"Here's a beautiful companion to Marley's other Exquisite Creatures calendar. Again presenting insects from the tropics, Marley introduces us to twelve of the known 150,000 species of butterflies (up to 250,000 species remain undescribed). The images reveal the insects' showiness--used for communicating or to indicate their inedibility to predators. The soothing blues of Africa's African blue swallowtail and Peru's cracker butterfly (Hamadryus) and the vivid purple of Siluin, the giant blue from Papua and Indonesia, only hint at the range of color and pattern inherent in nature. ¶ 13 x 12" wall calendar (opens to 13 x 24") with twelve full-color reproductions. ISBN: 0-7649-3135-0. Click on the small picture to see the back cover. Related items available in Gardening."--© Pomegranate

My daughter is crazy about butterflies and learning about them. I've always loved them too so we are having fun reading about them. We have read many library books about butterflies and this is one of the best. Beautifully illustrated and informative, the book has fourteen, two-page sections plus a glossary and index. An alluring feature that should be in every book to test/improve reading comprehension is a review called "Life of a Butterfly" that uses a picture along with a word or group of words for children to remember the main point of each section they read. If they don't know the answer, they can go back to the appropriate section to find out.

Here are the contents along with a brief summary of each section:
1 WHAT IS A BUTTERFLY? (Butterflies are insects. The wings have patterns made of colored scales the size of dust.)

2 BUTTERFLY OR MOTH? (Butterflies fly during day, have long thin feelers, are brightly-colored and close their wings when resting. Most moths fly at night, have hairlike or feathery feelers, thicker hairy bodies, and cannot close their wings.)

3 HIBERNATION (Some butterflies sleep during the winter in a safe place for up to six months. Other butterflies hibernate in a shell-like chrysalis, and some fly to warmer areas.)

4 MATING (Butterflies feed on nectar of flowers. When you see them, you know spring is here at last. After a few weeks, they are ready to mate.)

5 THE EGGS (Laid on underside of leaves or are scattered as they fly, hundreds are laid and eggs may hatch in a few days.)

6 THE EGGS HATCH (The caterpillars eat their way out of the tops of their eggs. They have eight pairs of legs, no wings, and large jaws for eating leaves.)

7 GROWING UP (Caterpillars grow quickly so they have to shed their old skin which is called molting. When the caterpillar sheds its skin for the last time it becomes a pupa enclosed in a chrysalis.)

8 THE CHRYSALIS (Hangs upside down to a plant. Metamorphosis occurs.)

9 A NEW BUTTERFLY (The chrysalis opens in about two weeks. The butterfly emerges and crawls up onto the empty chrysalis to dry. After one hour the wings dry and the butterfly is ready to fly for the first time.)

10 FEEDING (Butterflies have a special long tongue [probiscus] for sucking up nectar.)

11 ESCAPING FROM DANGER (Butterflies are often eaten by birds. The peacock butterfly has patterns on its wings that look like eyes. They eye patterns look like the eyes of an owl which frightens away birds. The underside of the butterfly's wings are dark which looks like a dead leaf which are good for hiding on tree bark.)

12 HELPING BUTTERFLIES (You can help butterflies by growing plenty of flowering plants in your yard they can feed on. [Plant milkweed, butterflies plant of choice to lay their eggs on.] )

13 Other Butterflies and their Caterpillars
14 Life of a Butterfly
15 Glossary and Index

Soar!

This is my first Magic Castle Reader, but I've read that they are superb.

In this story, a little girl opens a book and reads about another little girl who finds a caterpillar and takes it home. Her father helps her give it a nice home so she can watch as it disappears inside its covering. She waits and is amazed as it comes out a butterfly. Since she lives in a cold climate she also finds a nice warm home for the butterfly to fly around in by calling in a favor from her Dad's friend. The book says it's in the science category so this is obviously a book on biology for young readers. The title is actually the words that the little girl puts on the box the butterfly travels in to get to its nice warm home at the end.

The story is so simple a sweet. If the rest of the books are like this one, I'll be another Mom singing the praises of this series.