Butterflies of Europe and the Mediterranean area (1 Viewer)

For those who are interested:

a new book on European butterflies has been published, covering an area way bigger than Tolman or Lafranchis.

http://sites.google.com/site/tshikolovetsbooks/home/1-butterflies-of-europe--the-mediterranean-area

As far as I can see now from the example pdf's on the website (I have ordered the book but haven't received it yet), the big positive thing is that it seems the book has a lot of pictures as well in collection as in the field from all possible variaties of the different taxa, also taxa European butterfly enthusiastics haven't seen yet. It can certainly open the way to promising butterfly areas in Ukrain, Caucasus or Turkey. Minors are maybe that the maps do seem a little old and therefore probably in a lot of cases optimistic and there is no real text covering features of the taxa (but there nearly isn't in Tolman and only limited in Lafranchis also).

As far as I know, the only way to order the book is by direct contact with the autor, it is a little pricy but as far as I concider worth it.

A very impressive effort, but personally I'd prefer more guidance on ID features. I'm also surprised that the book doesn't seem to give English names (at least not on the main texts). Purists might disagree, but I find it useful to have the Emglish names - largely because I find 'Latin/Greek' scientific names hard to recall. Also I couldn't seem to find the price - how much is it? I'd guess that the sales are relatively small - with a bigger print run (which a larger publisher might command) it might have been cheaper ....

Pemberley Books has it at £79.

The author is neither English or American, so usage of English names probably wasn't a priority for him...! Outside english-speaking countries butterfly "purists" almost always prefer to use scientific binomies, even if popular names exist (as in Italy, where horrible italian names are fortunately only very rarely cited and used...).

The lack of ID hints is a rather common feature of strictly enthomological works (also found in Tolman and Lewington, where there are no ID keys or distinctions between species). The new book is not a Field Guide, but a very good "fauna" (as to say, overview...) about all diurnal butterflies occurring in WP!

Igor Festari

Thanks,

Has anyone else out there now got the book and is willing to comment on it?

It's a big outlay, especially given post+packing and bank transfer fees on top if ordering from the author, though still significantly cheaper than from 'normal' established booksellers.

But a rigorous approach covering from the Atlantic Islands to beyond the Caucasus is impressive, even though I can already see shortfalls in the maps for a number of Spanish species for which sample plates are given...

Thanks in advance.

John

What's the coverage of NW Russia like?


Andy

Hi Andy

It's a remarkable book, though perhaps being harsh naturally suffers from some issues regarding covering such a huge area, principally in the accuracy of the maps, and the possibility to see the differently coloured regions for each subspecies, which is sometimes difficult under artifical light. There are a few mistakes, such as the assignation of colours to certain subspecies and their subsequent mapping (e.g. Polyommatus albicans).

However, in the light of the absence of a European-wide concensus on the taxonomy of the butterflies in the region, it's going to become my baseline, rather than the (excellent) Collins guide.

Don't be fooled into thinking it's an ID guide though, as it very definitely is not. Only in a relatively limited number of cases does it talk about ID and then mainly to explain that although taxon A is indistinguishable from taxon B in the field, but is separated by chromosome number, etc. Looking at the slightly surreal number of blues in Turkey, this is very relevant, but not noted right across the spectrum (unfortunately).

Coverage is from the Ural Mountains W across the whole of Europe (just inc most of Iceland on the map) to includes the Canary Islands, Madeira and Azores archipelagoes, and S of the Med covers Morocco & N-most W Sahara, and the whole (at times narrow) belt across E to the Siniai Peninsula, northernmost Saudi Arabia, NW Iran, surroundings to the Caspian Sea (and occasionally even Aral Sea) and N through W Kazakhistan to the Urals.

The author is Russian and naturally has a far more eastern 'bias' to his viewpoint (Belarus is probably C European when looking from the Urals!) and has done a remarkable job.

Regards

John

igorfest said:

The author is neither English or American, so usage of English names probably wasn't a priority for him...!

Click to expand...

Yes, but he has published in English. Seems a bit of a wasted opportunity to produce a guide that would also appeal to the many 'general' butterfly enthusiasts that certainly would have appreciated the inclusion of such - for many, the scientific names are far from easy to recall.

It is not exactly a cheap book, so will I buy it? Quite possibly, but I already have a couple of other guides, so maybe not. Would I buy it if the names were in also in English? More likely than at present. Probably I am not alone in this, so a simple omission will surely dent sales to a degree.