Over 2,000 of the most commonly observed and most distinctive insect species of Britain and western Europe, from all orders and most families, are illustrated in this essential pocket guide. The text summarises key identification points, and introductory sections for each group covered give useful guidelines on the characteristics of the orders, families and genera covered. This is the most comprehensive guide available on the insects of this region and will be of great use to all naturalists with an interest in insect life.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Were I forced to limit my selection of natural history books to a shelf of 10, choice number one would be "Insects"... This modestly sized volume contains such a vast amount of readily accessible information couched in understandable terms and is in my hands pretty well every day.' Eastern Daily Press (September 2007) 'The best general field guide to insects on the market.' British Wildlife (August 2007) 'An extraordinary and marvellous book - get one today and start really enjoying the wildlife in your garden.' Organic Gardening 'an invaluable guide to the bugs in your garden...this pocket guide features more than 2000 of the most distinctive insect species of Britain and Western Europe.' Garden (December 07) 'a suberb, comprehensive guide with excellent colour illustrations, which make an often overlooked animal group instantly accessible.' Guardian Unlimited (November 07)
About the Author
Michael Chinery is the UK's leading writer on insects.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for any bug buffs!,
By hotpoint1 "hotpoint1" (Limerick, Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Insects of Britain and Western Europe (Paperback)
A great little book for getting out there and identifying just about anything that crawls!! Completely illustrated throughout,over 2000 detailed pictures,sometimes including the nymphal or larval forms of the insect.There is also a section on spiders and scorpions and a few crustaceans.The text describes the main features , habitat, region and months of appearance of each and every species. Really, not one wasted page!! There's a section on technical information re insect anatomy and a glossary of terms a the back. There are two indices ,one for the latin species names and another for common names. If you are buying this for the US , I think it woild be good for some species identification, but it is very much for Western Europe. I live in Ireland and I find it incredibly accurate and without comparision in the insect guide world. If you want to but this book new or used on Amazon.co.uk, good luck ;be prepared to pay any amount of money for it!!!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent beginners guide, but not to butterflies,
By Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Insects of Britain and Western Europe (Paperback)
"Insects of Britain and Western Europe" is an almost classical field guide, now in a revised 2007 edition. Of course, no field guide can cover *all* species of insects. In Europe alone, there are about 100,000 insect species known to science! Chinery has selected over a thousand representative species for his field guide, and these are all superbly illustrated (in full color) by Richard Lewington, Stephen Falk and others. After looking through bird books where the poor birdies looked like Donald Duck, this comes as a pleasant surprise! The text and the color plates are on facing pages, and the vernacular names are given on the plates, provided such exist. There is also a chapter on creatures frequently confused with insects, including spiders, scorpions and woodlice."Insects of Britain and Western Europe" is, I assume, mostly directed at beginners. If you have a strong special interest for a particular kind of insects, say butterflies or dragonflies, there are better field guides that concentrate on these. But if you simply want an overview of what's out there, and spend your time strolling around parks, meadows or forests, this is the field guide for you. Provided that your strolling takes place in Britain and Western Europe, of course! You wont be able to identify every individual species you come across, but you will be able to place them in the correct order, and sometimes family, with the help of this book. You will also be able to identify the most conspicuous species. Thus, this is not a book for someone who absolutely wants to identify brown lacewings, ascalaphids or fruitflies. Rather, it's a book that aids the beginner to tell the difference between bugs and beetles, or dragonflies, damselflies and antlions, or various kinds of wasps. How do I know all this? Well, let's just say that I spent my summer holidays as a child in places where insects were very abundant. I sometimes feel that I've seen all the species mentioned in Chinery's book...and been attacked by at least half of them, LOL. There is no such thing as a perfect field guide, and even "Insects of Britain and Western Europe" have certain short-comings. First, the most well-known species often have a less prominent position on the plates than the rarer species, which may confuse the beginner. Second, the geographical area covered by the book isn't entirely clear. It seems to cover Scandinavia, Germany, the British Isles, Benelux and France, but what about Spain, Portugal and Italy? My impression is that the author has haphazardly included some species from those nations (the coolest ones?), and excluded many others. It's also unclear how far east "Western Europe" goes. Finland? Poland? East Germany? Third, the butterfly section is a real disappointment, strangely enough since butterflies are the most conspicuous insects. Many species aren't even illustrated, and others are only illustrated from one angle. Perhaps Chinery wanted to de-emphasize the well-known butterflies in favor of the other insects? Still, an otherwise excellent insect book with bad butterflies doesn't feel completely alright. This being said, this is still the best beginners' guide to creepy critters of Britain, Scandinavia and the westernmost parts of the European landmass. PS. Please note that this review is of the 2007 Revised Edition, the one published by Domino. Amazon sometimes places reviews of one edition at the product pages of the other editions as well, which is somewhat confusing, and not just to the beginner...
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