Customer Reviews

Amazon Insects - A Photo Guide

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A pocket-sized gem that makes a great companion for the Amazon traveller or armchair enthusiast alike, opening up a world of breathtaking - if Lilliputian - diversity. No, it's not a dry scientific compendium, but the author says as much at the start of the book. It's an easily accessible intro: perfect for the vast majority of travellers to the region. The color photos are superb, and make for easy identification of this selection of the region's most fascinating and emblematic insects. Check out the mimicry of these little marvels -- you may find yourself being drawn into their little world with more passion than you'd ever have expected!

For a small, easily carried identification book it is a quick resource. Since it is small it has limited information but will serve as a guide to further searches for particular insects especially because it has the biological information in both English and Spanish.

This book is a very short photo guide book of insects in the Amazon. In 160 short pages (each page is about 1/2 of a regular page's size), the author covers some of the most picturesque species of insects one is likely to find in the Amazon.

In a recent trip I brought the guide along to see if I could distinguish some of the species I encountered. Though I found many insects similar to the ones in the book, I noticed that the book did not describe the most common ones, such as regular flies and mosquitos. These are the most abundant and bothersome kinds, but are out of the book probably because they are not very interesting.

Overall, this is an interesting guide and the pictures are definitely amazing. Would benefit from the addition of the more boring insects.

This past summer I had the opportunity to visit the amazon rainforest and scoured the net and bookstores for literature about amazonian insects. I found this selection @ amazon.com and eagerly anticipated its arrival. The book is small and nicely writen. I appreciated the bilanguality of it, and found a nice sampling of insects within. Unfortunitly, as a serious entomologist, I found the book little more than entertaining. With the sheer diversity of life in that region, I'm not sure if several volumes worth of pictures and data could justify. Though a nice conversation piece, this book is not for the serious traveler or professional interested in a realistic sampling of insect life from the amazon region.