Butterflies by R I Vane-Wright

[Robin]

Hi,

I am looking for a book specifically on butterfly biology and came across this title:
Butterflies by R I Vane-Wright ISBN 0565091808 published by the Natural History Museum.
The local library cannot get hold of a copy for me so I look like having to buy a copy. I was wondering if anyone has read this and can recommend it. If not, can they recommend anything else.
Thanks
Robin

[Pete Eeles]

I'd thoroughly recommend "Butterflies" by E.B.Ford. It discusses:

- The structure and development of butterflies
- The senses and colours of butterflies
- Habits and protective devices
- Genetics

and lots more! Also out of print thought. ISBN 1-870630-49-1.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Adrian Hoskins]

The E.B.Ford classic is a great read, but I'd very highly recommend "Butterflies of the World" by Rod & Ken Preston-Mafham, Blandford Press, ISBN 0 7137 1884 6.

It is marvellously readable, and contains endless fascinating behavioural observations, as well as covering anatomy, reproduction flight, survival startegies, ecology, migration etc.

Another excellent book is "Butterflies of North America" by James Scott, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0 8047 2013 4.

As well as being an identification guide to North American butterflies, it contains 150 pages devoted to buitterfly biology and ecology.

I think both are out of print, but David Dunbar should have them secondhand.

Also take a look at http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com - which has many pages devoted to anatomy, ecology, taxonomy, survival strategies, migration etc, plus galleries of photos of British and tropical butterflies etc.

Adrian Hoskins
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com

[Pete Eeles]

I just want to endorse Adrian's website - you'll spend several hours enjoying the content that Adrian has there!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Adrian Hoskins]

Thanks Pete, lots of new UK butterfly pics added today, and I'll be adding a gallery of West African butterflies in a few days.

Adrian

http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com

[chanandler04]

Butterflies by E.B.Ford has to be the definitive guide to everything butterflies and is absolutely fantastic there is also a more recent publication (1970's) called the biology of butterflies which involves papers from a conference held on butterflies. The book is dedicated to E.B.Ford and he precided over the whole conference it is a very useful book.

[Martin]

Butterflies by R I Vane-Wright

It sounds like "Fly Fishing" by J.R.Hartley" (hope you remember the advert)

[Piers]

The Biology of Butterflies by Vane-Wright & Ackery (Academic Press 1984). is a superbly scholarly work running to a whopping 400+ pages. It is the work on butterfly biology and will be the only work that you'll need on the subject for years to come!

I think that this is the title that chanandler04 refers to. It's quite expensive second hand (usually £50 or there abouts) but worth every penny if you're serious about butterfly biology.

EB Ford's classic work is still generally relevant, but pretty dated now in a lot of respects...

Felix.