www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Whilst buying the "The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland" book in Waterstones I thought it a good idea to take a field guide as well, but when browsing through a couple and noticing that they both contained pictures of the Large Copper then I put them back, naively reasoning that as this butterfly is now extinct the books were wrong and outdated!! I now realise that the book was certainly listing Former butterflies as well, Doh - newby eh. Anyway which field guide would you recommend.
For anyone contemplating buying "The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland" then you must do so, it is just superb.

Thanks.
Paul

Well the choice is quite large so it really depends on what suits you and what works best for you in the field. Some people prefer photographic guides, others drawings/paintings. There's also the foldout leaflet with Richard Lewingtons paintings which works very well for basic identification and is weather proof.

Any of these 3 would be a good start for you.

The leaflet:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Butterflies-Bri ... utterflies

Paintings:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pocket-Guide-Bu ... utterflies

Photographs:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britains-Butter ... utterflies

If you want a pocket sized field guide you will not go wrong with:
Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland
Richard Lewington. Published by British Wildlife Publishing Ltd (16 Jun 2003), 18.8 x 11.6 x 1 cm, covers the 59 UK species, 144 pages

I agree with the excellent suggestions so far.

One group that can confuse many new-comers to British Butterflies are the colourful day-flying moths, so you might also consider another WildGuides publication: "Britain's Day-Flying Moths' by David Newland et al. This may solve a few puzzles!

Another good photographic guide, which covers both moths and butterflies, is "British Moths and Butterflies" by Chris Manley, which includes photos of larvae and pupae.

Then, of course, you may cross The Channel, when hordes more species will suddenly appear. A good photo guide to these is "Butterflies of Britain and Europe" by Tari Haahtela et al These last two guides are both published by A&C Black.

Mike

In the field, why not consider an app?

This one is ideal for UK species:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/butterf ... 74311?mt=8

It lacks rare migrants like pale clouded yellow, but is otherwise excellent, including Lewington's illustrations of all stages as well as photos.

Alternatively, this one is more complete and also has a more detailed text:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/british ... 31398?mt=8

If you have an iPhone, why carry a book?

Guy

Or if you don't have an iphone there's always the iRecord butterflies app. Means you can record all your sightings and send them to the Biological Records Center and BC. I used it all season last year. Very easy to use and every sighting can be used to monitor populations and distribution trends!