Field guide recommendations for dragonflies and butterflies needed (1 Viewer)

[David_]

Hi,

I just started to get interested in insects but as this is such a broad field I thought about limiting myself to dragonflies and butterflies (at least for the beginning ). After looking for field guides covering Europe I am not sure what would be the best books to buy.
For dragonflies I see that the books beneath all seem to have great reviews. The last one is in German, so probably not a lot of opinions on this book in the forum. Which one would you recommend as a first field guide for a beginner?

• Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe: 2nd edition (Dijkstra, Schröter Lewington)​

• Europe's Dragonflies: A Field Guide to the Damselflies and Dragonflies (Smallshire, Swash)​

• Dragonflies and Damselflies of Britain and Western Europe: A Photographic Guide (Boudot, Doucet, Grand)​

• Kosmos Libellenführer (Bellmann)​

For butterflies I am totally clueless what field guide to get. I saw that there is a Collins Guide (which is 10 years old) a German field guide from Bellmann which has great reviews but there are probably other good ones I‘m not aware of. What would you recommend as a field guide?

By the way: I am aware that there are some field guides which cover a broader range of insects but a field guide trying to cover the full range of insects and as result is limiting itself to the most important species is a concept that is not really appealing to me.

Thabks for your help

​

 

[aeshna5]

The first 2 dragonfly guides listed are both first rate & will serve you well. I'd recommend getting both but if you wish to only get one the first is more illustration based & the other photo based.

I've not seen the new third title but as you can see from the title it only covers the western part of Europe whereas the other 2 cover all of Europe.

Of butterfly titles still in print I'd recommend Butterflies of Britain & Europe, a photographic guide by Haahtela et al.

 

[opisska]

For butterflies, I have been recommended on this forum to simply download this:

https://assets.vlinderstichting.nl/docs/0b095bc2-0387-4785-9f7e-5f7a987b3468.pdf

And it's absolutely fantastic.

 

[David_]

The first 2 dragonfly guides listed are both first rate & will serve you well. I'd recommend getting both but if you wish to only get one the first is more illustration based & the other photo based

I think I will go with the Dijkstra book and maybe add Smallshire and Swash guide later.

For butterflies, I have been recommended on this forum to simply download this:

https://assets.vlinderstichting.nl/docs/0b095bc2-0387-4785-9f7e-5f7a987b3468.pdf

And it's absolutely fantastic.

Wow. Thanks! This looks great especially for a free document. I will start with this one.

Of butterfly titles still in print I'd recommend Butterflies of Britain & Europe, a photographic guide by Haahtela et al.

Even though the free PDF looks awesome I will probably also buy this book. I use ebooks and apps a lot but I still prefer using a book to look things up when at home (especially if I have been sitting in front of computer all day during work).

 

[sicklebill]

For butterflies, I have been recommended on this forum to simply download this:

https://assets.vlinderstichting.nl/docs/0b095bc2-0387-4785-9f7e-5f7a987b3468.pdf

And it's absolutely fantastic.

Thanks for this Jan, a fantastic resource, how I wish we had something similar for Australia!

 

[T.O.]

For butterflies I am very happy with the Collins guide from Tolman & Lewington, which seems to pack in more information than the haahtela guide. It has served me very well across Europe.

 

[opisska]

For Odonata, I really recommend checking out http://www.dragonflypix.com/ - it does not really replace a book guide, but it's a great resource. I suspect that some of the extra pictures there are scanned from guides, so I am not complete sure if it's completely legal ... but there is also an abundance of original pictures and what I really like are the lists of diagnostic feature for each species.

 

[Andy Adcock]

For Odonata, I really recommend checking out http://www.dragonflypix.com/ - it does not really replace a book guide, but it's a great resource. I suspect that some of the extra pictures there are scanned from guides, so I am not complete sure if it's completely legal ... but there is also an abundance of original pictures and what I really like are the lists of diagnostic feature for each species.

The guys at this site are really knowledgeable too, they've helped me with a lot of European ID's in the past.