Butterflies of Europe (Princeton Field Guides) [Paperback]

Tom Tolman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Princeton Field Guides | Publication Date: December 26, 2001

This is the most comprehensive field guide to the butterflies of Europe. The magnificent color illustrations and succinct entries cover all 440 species across, and sometimes beyond, the continent--from Lapland to North Africa, from the British Isles to Portugal to Greece, from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus. Completely up-to-date, the book includes dozens of species absent in earlier guides and covers the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, and the Aegean Islands, home to several butterflies found nowhere else in Europe.

The entries cover taxonomic nomenclature, range, distribution, description, flight period, variation, habitat, life history--including, importantly, larval host plants--and behavior. The 104 color plates feature over 2,000 illustrations, including both genders of each species and lateral views. Distribution maps accompany nearly all entries. In this journey to the haunts of the Old World's most kaleidoscopic creatures we encounter: Swallowtails and Festoons, Orange Tips, Hairstreaks and Blues, Emperors and Tortoiseshells, Fritillaries, Ringlets, Skippers, and many other delicately winged delights.

All who find butterflies beautiful will treasure this authoritative guide. Whether already afield or still at home dreaming of that trip to Europe, they will feel what the great literary lepidopterist, Vladimir Nabokov, did as a schoolboy in Russia, when, as he once recounted, he so yearned to identify one of those "delicate little creatures that cling in the daytime to speckled surfaces, with which their flat wings and turned-up abdomens blend."

• Comprehensive field guide to the 440 butterflies found in Europe
• Each species fully illustrated with paintings of the male, female, and, where appropriate, all major forms
• Over 2,000 color illustrations and more than 400 distribution maps--one for every widespread species
• Text covering taxonomic nomenclature, distribution, flight period, variation, habitat, behavior, life cycle, food plants, and conservation
• All information researched from original sources

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book will serve as the quick identification guide for anyone interested in the butterflies of Britain and Europe. Its user will have the pleasure of bringing into play the color illustrations by Richard Lewington. To say that they are good would be a disservice--the identification plates are without equal in any modern field guide to butterflies.
(P. J. de Vries, Director, Center for Biodiversity Studies, Milwaukee Public Museum )

From the Back Cover

"This book will serve as the quick identification guide for anyone interested in the butterflies of Britain and Europe. Its user will have the pleasure of bringing into play the color illustrations by Richard Lewington. To say that they are good would be a disservice--the identification plates are without equal in any modern field guide to butterflies."--P. J. de Vries, Director, Center for Biodiversity Studies, Milwaukee Public Museum

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691090742
• ISBN-13: 978-0691090740
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,043,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully crafted - essential for identifying European butterflies, October 9, 2006

By 

Christopher J. Sharpe "Chris Sharpe" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butterflies of Europe (Princeton Field Guides) (Paperback)

This is the best field guide to European butterflies and not just by default. Although there is currently no other decent European field guide to butterflies, this has undoubtedly set the standard for many years to come.

All 440 species of Europe and North Africa are fully described and illustrated with male and females depicted and - where there is significant variation - subspecies.

The text itself is accurate, concise and oriented at the field observer. A monochrome thumbnail map accompanies the detailed range / distribution section. Under "Description", it is heartening to see comparative comments rather than a re-hashing of what can be seen on the plates - something that used to occur often in field guides. Habitat is described in great detail. Life history includes a list of larval food plants.

The 104 plates do not accompany the text, but are found together in the centre of the book. They are, of course, superb. Extremely lifelike, wonderfully helpful for identification and pleasing to the eye, they are everything we have come to expect from Richard Lewington's brush.

This is a "must have" for anyone travelling to Europe and no British naturalist will want to be without it either. In 1970, Higgins & Riley were the pioneers. This book is the worthy successor to that groundbreaking first guide, taking the art of identification to even higher levels.

5.0 out of 5 stars A continent of butterflies, August 2, 2008

By 

Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Butterflies of Europe (Princeton Field Guides) (Paperback)

This is probably the definitive field guide to European butterflies. Although it contains several tributes to L.G. Higgins, N.D. Riley and their classical field guide published in 1970, this work is *much* better. Finally Higgins-Riley can be laid to rest! Not one moment to soon, I'd say.

"Butterflies of Europe" covers the butterflies found in Europe (minus Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine), the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, and the northernmost parts of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Greek-controlled islands of the Eastern Aegean are also included. All in all, 440 species are described in the book. One of them is the well-known North American Monarch butterfly, since it has successfully established itself in some areas of southern Europe!

There are 140 color plates in the book, showing both male and female butterflies, and the most common subspecies and forms. The plates show the butterflies both in the usual "pinched" position, and in a more natural position, with the underside of the wings visible. (Larvae are not shown.) The plates and the text are not on facing pages, but since many butterflies are very similar to each other, it's probably necessary to place as many of them as possible side by side, to aid identification. The color plates must therefore be in a different section of the book than the text pages.

Unfortunately, not all species or subspecies are illustrated. Some, including several East Aegean species, are only mentioned in the text. I'm still waiting for the day when somebody publishes a field guide where *everything* is illustrated. That's the point of a field guide, right?

The text contain information on range, distribution (including mountain altitude), variation within the species, flight-period, habitat and behaviour, and larvae host plants. Where the species have been recorded as a rare migrant is also mentioned. There are range maps for every species. Both the Latin and vernacular names are given. There is also a glossary of scientific terms at the end of the book.

The only possible negative with this book is that the approximate ranges of the various butterflies aren't mentioned on the color plates, which could lead to some confusion if a rare species from, say, Africa is somewhat similar to a more common species from, say, Central Europe. Otherwise, I believe that Tom Tolman and his illustrator Richard Lewington have out-done themselves. Exit Higgins & Riley, LOL.

4.0 out of 5 stars Butterflies of Europe, March 14, 2007

By 

C. West (Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Butterflies of Europe (Princeton Field Guides) (Paperback)

Wonderful field guide. The only thing I would have liked better is a species description and range map on the same page as the plate. However, the description and information given on each species is thorough for a field guide.