Customer Reviews

Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: A Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America (Field Guides (Oxford))

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: A Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America" fulfills the very real need for the identification of the caterpillars of butterflies and skippers from North America. While not covering much in the way of moths (they have a token few at the end of the book) this book does pretty much what the author says it will do- help you identify the caterpillars of just about any butterflies found in North America, north of Mexico. The moths (which make up ten times species as butterflies) have numerous caterpillar forms and to identify these I would recommend the guide to eastern North American caterpillars by David L. Wagner.

One nice (and important) touch are the illustrations of the adults of most butterflies.

I annually take part in the 4th of July Butterfly Count and you can be sure I'll bring a copy of this book to the next one to see if we can locate some of the caterpillars of the butterflies we spot.

This is a great guide for anyone interested in butterfly gardens (helps you identify the immature stages), amateur naturalists or just the plain curious.

For a couple years now, I've been trying to learn all I can about butterflies. It all started in 2002 when I made it through a lazy, long summer day by playing hopskotch. While hopping around the cracked sidewalk, I saw a sadddle-back moth caterpillar! Then this year, I saw a Monarch butterfly breaking out of the sac its caterpillar had made on one of the arms of the front porch family glider. So I was really ready for CATERPILLARS IN THE FIELD AND GARDEN.

Authors Thomas J Allen, Jim P Brock and Jeffrey Glassberg know what they're talking about. They've studied, looked long and hard at, and lived with caterpillars and butterflies for years. They've also put all that book learning and field work into a clearly written, well organized guide with many helpful pictures.

Their book gives the English and scientific names, identification, host plant, habitat and garden tips for each of over 500 butterfly caterpillars. It also has good photos of each caterpillar and butterfly. But the authors warn that the pictures are of caterpillars when they're that close to making the sac from which butterflies break away. Based on the very few examples found so far, young caterpillars don't look that much like their older forms.

A female butterfly can lay as many as 100-300 eggs. But only about 1-2 will make it through life to become a butterfly. Too many will be killed by bacterial, fungal or viral diseases; or parasite flies and wasps; or people; or pesticides. Many of us now see the need to reduce pesticide and hazardous material use. With this book, we'll know butterfly caterpillars when we see them. So we'll know better than to spray and swat them.

What I take away from this beautiful work is how good butterfly caterpillars and butterflies are for us and our green spaces. Most caterpillars going after our salad or vegetable plants aren't going to grow up to be butterflies. Butterfly caterpillars and butterflies go for North America's native plants and trees. That's all they need, along with shelter from the wind, nectar, flat stones for sunning, and damp sand or gravel for salt. And their favorite pig-out food: fermenting fruits!

This is a very nicely done guide to the subject, and it is only flawed by the fact that moth larvae are not included. See "Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History" (Princeton Field Guides)by David L. Wagner for a more comprehensive guide. But, if you are serious about the subject, you should probably have both books.

The best field guide on caterpllars I know of. Exhaustive color photography of each species. Color range maps. Introduction includes tips on butterfly gardening and an easy-to-read biology of butterflies from eggs to adults, behavior, and diseases. Supplementary text including a more detailed description of caterpillars along with page no. of image. Foodplant index with scientific names. Excellent paperback reference.

Despite the fact that this guide is not very thick, it provides lots of helpful information and excellent photograhps for anyone wanting to try their hand at identifying butterfly larvae. I heartily recommend it!

This a good basic book on caterpillars, but it kind of left me stranded. Still can't be sure what butterfly/moth belongs to which caterpillar, especially in my region (west coast). This book is informative, but too generalized. However, having said that, it's the best I've come across.

This was a nice caterpillar book and it was helpful. But not to dish the book, I could not find some of the caterpillars that were eating my plants. This is not the only caterpillar book I have purchased and they all have the same flaw. Maybe they need to have caterpillars by state or region. The book was very informative and had very detailed photos. I will keep and use this book

Spring is about to arrive here in the Ozarks and I have been busy in finding, sorting out and taking an inventory of the various (and alas, many) field guides I have collected over the years. These guides include everything from freshwater mussels to insects, birds, trees, plants, reptiles, amphibians, flowers, butterflies, spiders and on and on and on.

The guide being reviewed here of curse focuses on butterfly caterpillars on North America, but please note that traditionally, with almost all field guides, the term "North America" usually includes the area north of Mexico. To include our southern neighbor would take volumes and volumes. Those interested in critters and plants south of us should seek out field guides specific for that country or area.

Caterpillars in the field and Garden, the guide being reviewed here is a very nice tool. The potential buyer or reader must keep in mind though that world wide there are well over 20,000 butterflies and the number jumps to something like 125,000 species when moths are included. In the lower 48 states we have about 575 butterflies identified so far and about 12,000 moths. (Note that I am a bit vague as to numbers here as it depends on what reference you use as how many species of these critters exist and there are new species being "discovered" each year both world wide and in this country. Simply put...not one know for sure just how many there are. Remember this when evaluating any field guide on the subject.

Anyway....

This is a visually delightful book filled with 900 photographs of caterpillars. The authors have given a very good example of all the major groups, excellent range maps and a good physical description. While specific species are covered quite well, identification of subspecies, of which there are many, is a bit problematic. I know of no book or field guide that can cover absolutely everything. For those truly serious about the subject, it is highly recommended to have access to a number of different guides.

The authors do a good job in identifying habitat, food sources, developmental stages, variations and they have been kind enough to include a photograph of the adult butterfly with each general species. As an example we are given seven pictures of the larva of the Pearly-eye and its variations and then supplied with a picture of the Eyed Brown adult to act as a general guide. The user of this book will no doubt want a good butterfly guide to supplement it.

This work leads of with a lot of good general information about butterflies and moths. It should be noted here though that the entire guide focuses more on butterflies than moths; with moths being given only a general nod.

The new user, or the newcomer to the field of butterfly observation will indeed become somewhat frustrated at first over identification. Even with the excellent pictures provided and nicely done descriptions, it is still quite difficult at times to identify these animals....this is true of any field guide covering anything, from birds to plants to large animals. There are simply so many species, so many variations and so many different circumstances that no one book can do it all.

That being said though, this is an excellent guide and I have found it to be extremely valuable. It is a good guide to have around and I find myself turning to it often...with excellent results.

Note: Range guides are good but you should not get locked into them as if they were written in stone. Ranges of all wildlife is changing drastically at this time and we have species appearing where they have never been seen before and we are finding many, many species simply disappearing all together from long established ranges.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

This is book is useful, it has nice full color pictures on almost every right hand page that really help you when you're trying to identify something

Great book for your field guide library. Excellent pictures and information for the garden bug hunter. We love this book and enjoy getting it out to identify the creepy crawly caterpillars in our garden. :)