The definitive list of British nature guides (1 Viewer)

[Telephoto Paul]

Being a birders' site there's a lot of discussion about bird books, but I'd like to know what people think are the definitive works for identifying the many other forms of life we might encounter in the UK & Ireland. With more than 20,000 species of insect, there's clearly a lot of room for different complimentary books). Whereas with so few mammals, I'd probably favour something with a bit more depth for each one.

I don't own most of these, but they're the ones that look most promising.

Birds
- Collins Bird Guide; Svensson
- Tracks and Signs of the Birds of Britain and Europe, Brown et al.

Moths
- Field Guide to the Micro-Moths of Great Britain and Ireland; Sterling et al
- Field Guide to the Macro-Moths of Great Britain and Ireland; Waring et al

Slugs
- Slugs of Britain and Ireland: Identification Understanding and Control; Rowson et al

Snails
- Land Snails in the British Isles; Cameron & Riley

Spiders
- Collins Field Guide to the Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe; Roberts
- The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland (2-Volume Set): Compact Edition; Roberts

Agree/disagree with the above? Got suggests for mammals, beetles, ants, everything flora, everything aquatic, butterflies, bees, wasps, dragonflies, flies, countless types of insects I haven't thought off...

 

[Nicola Main]

For the mammals of Britain the two that I rate quite highly are the Collins Complete British Animals by Paul Sterry (each animal gets a two-page spread and there's a good amount of information and stunning photos) and the Field Guide to the Animals of Britain by Reader's Digest (30 years old but don't let the age put you off the illustrations in it are fantastic and again lots of useful information).

For insects I just recently purchased A Comprehensive Guide to Insects of Britain & Ireland by Paul D. Brock and it's better than anything else I've seen. Concise, gorgeous photos and easy to understand (and nearly every species has a distribution map which is good as other books tend to leave these out for insects).

 

[chris butterworth]

Although the book on Snails is the best one available in English, for amateurs, it's woefully out of date regarding taxonomy and nomenclature and many slugs and snails can't be identified by external characters alone. Orders like Beetles and Flies are so large that there are no single volume covering them ( and the BENHS keys take some getting used to ).

Butterflies :-
Collins Butterfly Guide by Tom Tolman and Richard Lewington is superb.

Plants :-
The Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose or Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland by Majority Blamey, Richard Fitter and Alistair Fitter are the best two.

Hoverflies :-
British Hoverflies by Alan Stubbs and Steven Falk is still, probably, the definitive work.

Galls :-
British Plant Galls by Margaret Redfern, Peter Shirley and Michael Bloxham

Marine Life :-
Handbook of Marine Fauna of North-West Europe by P.J. Hayward and J.S. Ryland is a bit technical ( and too large to take into the field ) but is probably the best 'one stop shop' for all things found on the shore / shallow seas around Britain.

General Insects :-
Insects of Britain and Western Europe by Michael Chinery ( not Britain and Northern Europe, which is a totally different book ) still holds its own as a handy guide to take into the field.

 

[njlarsen]

This one was recommended to me as a good Mammal book: http://www.nhbs.com/title/161304/mammals-of-europe-north-africa-and-the-middle-east - scope is obviously wider than just UK

Niels