Customer Reviews

Butterflies and Moths (Golden Guide)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This golden guide is an excellent place to learn the basics. It's small, therefore portable, and pictures often show male and female variations, different coloration phases and a view of wings spread and folded. It also contains range maps and pupa and larva pictures for most butterflies and moths. Keep in mind, though, that pictures are artist renderings, not photos.

I carried an earlier edition of "Butterflies and Moths" around with my as I traipsed about fields near my home, butterfly hunting. I'd find a butterfly (or moth, as the case may be) and approximate which one it was through this guide.

The pictures are accurate. Not only will you see the butterfly, but a close up of various parts. There are maps showing where it can be found, a very useful tool when the picture doesn't seem to match. It can help you determine if you have a certain variation, or a very lost butterfly.

Though a picture is worth a thousand words, the text found here is equally helpful. There are Latin names, pupae descriptions, eating habits and more. They've been careful not to overwhelm the reader, but there's plenty to whet the reading appetite of any young butterfly hunter.

It isn't just for children. Anyone with a garden would be happy to have this as a reference or as curious reading to learn just who has been munching the lettuce.

I fully recommend "Butterflies and Moths" by Robert T. Mitchell.

Anthony Trendl

Golden Guides are often described as books for children just discovering the natural world. While the series is eminently usable by young naturalists, Golden Guides are solid introductory field guides.

The strong point of "Butterflies and Moths" is its extensive coverage of butterfly larvae and pupae. A common complaint about many if not all more advanced field guides for laypeople is that they fail to include illustrations for te identification of caterpillars. The Golden Guide remedies this shortcoming and includes solid coverage of moths as well, whose less-glamorous condition excludes them from other butterflies-only guides (the Peterson Guide is a notable exception). In terms of weaknesses, the illustrations of adult butterflies have, in my experience, not been detailed or accurate enough to positively identify some species.

For being just a tiny pocket guide this book is terrific! It has most of the common butterflies and moths as the title indicates but what I especially love is that it also shows the caterpillars! Its great to have these side by side so that if you find a caterpillar you can id it and see what its going to turn into. Really great reference.

I recently purchased my second copy of this classic field guide. I still have my originial after thirty-six years (it sold for $1.00 back then). It is loaded with just enough useful information to help you identify many of the most common North American species. What I like most about this guide is the convenient small size.

Like all the other golden guide books, this one is very informative, the pictures give you a good way to identify butterflies and moths you find, and it is overall a very good read. I reccomend everyone to have at least on golden guide in their house, and this one is a very good one to have.

Zim and Mitchell's guide is renown for its simplistic, yet thorough, approach to enjoying moths and butterflies. These men's love of nature shines in this book which is a super beginners to novices guide on the subject. Start here. Let your library and interests...and love grow. Mitchell passed away in 1998. This book remains his legacy for all to enjoy.

This is a nice pocket-sized handbook for identifying, collecting and raising butterflies, skippers and moths. The introductory chapter describes the order Lepidoptera and details the equipment needed for capture and care of these lovely creatures, and includes a short bibliography. Subsequently, color and b&w drawings of adults, pupae and caterpillars along with distribution maps of North America help with identification, and short paragraphs give information about feeding and regional variations. This handy guide ends with a list of scientific names and an index. This would be a fine introduction for the older child or beginning adult lepidopterist.

Golden Guides are often described as books for children just discovering the natural world. While the series is eminently usable by young naturalists, Golden Guides are solid introductory field guides.

The strong point of "Butterflies and Moths" is its extensive coverage of butterfly larvae and pupae. A common complaint about many if not all more advanced field guides for laypeople is that they fail to include illustrations for te identification of caterpillars. The Golden Guide remedies this shortcoming and includes solid coverage of moths as well, whose less-glamorous condition excludes them from other butterflies-only guides (the Peterson Guide is a notable exception). In terms of weaknesses, the illustrations of adult butterflies have, in my experience, not been detailed or accurate enough to positively identify some species.

This little book's awesome. It's a great beginner's book, and even if you're not a beginner, chances are you'll find it useful. It's good for an intro to species, and since there are few moth books around, I find the moth section very helpful. For such a small book, obviously you won't have a whole lot of species, but it's got some of the most conspicuous, common, and interesting ones. Also, it's got animals from the major families, so at least if you see an unfamiliar animal, you have an idea of what family it's in and what it's related to. The information on spreading boards alone was worth the purchase, as I'd had no idea how to preserve lepidoptera before this book. And to the reviewer who said this taught you sick murdering techniques, the book recommends you collect sparingly IF you collect at all, and that you not take protected species. I've successfully preserved a butterfly I found dead, and was able to humanely kill and preserve a moth someone had stepped on, because of what I read in this book. So there.