Customer Reviews

Smithsonian Handbooks: Butterflies & Moths

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

 

 

The jacket blurb says this series comprises the most "accessible recognition guides." I'm not sure what that means, nor am I sure who this book is intended for but it wasn't me, nor, I suspect, any average backyard nature observer.

The illustrations are beautiful but as an identification guide it is totally useless. First, it is too inclusive. Butterflies and moths from the entire world are included, making its applicability limited. Worse, the insects are arranged not by color, size, habitat, or similar factor, but by their zoological family! If I were knowledgeable enough to have this information at my disposal, I probably wouldn't need a guide book. Finally, very few of the insects have an illustration of the caterpillar stage included.

My recommendation: if you want to identify moths or buttereflies, look for another guide.

I wanted a book that had butterflies and moths from around the world so I could get some paint schemes, and this one is what I was hoping for! I don't know that it would be very useful for identifying either (maybe if it had appendices for color or something for referencing), but it's great for my purposes. It includes basic butterfly/moth info, habitats, haunts, and what I was really looking for: Pictures. If there would be one thing that I would have liked even more, it would be even bigger pictures, but I'm being picky. I don't need to buy another book.

i havent read a whole book since graduate school but have never stopped learning about things. we have the entire collection and i now devour them cover to cover. i purchased almost all of them on Amazon for $5-$13 each (verses the $20 cover price). my kids and i LOVE to read these books and learn about the rocks, fossils and nature we find camping and fishing.

I have to admit I bought this book to pick out the next butterfly tattoo I'm getting. So that being said, color and photo definition was important. Unfortunately, the printing on this book was poorly done. The colors are all a little washed out and not very sharp. Otherwise this was a great book. It gave me more information about butterflies and moths than I ever wanted to know. So if your purpose is just to learn about them this is a great item. If you need the photos for some reason, be prepared to double check the color accuracy some other way.

At this small used and new bookshop tucked away in the North Woods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, there is great opportunity to observe many different butterflies and moths. Customers sit in my gardens with their copies of this Smithsonian handbook and identify the various species they see on the host plants in the butterfly garden.A very comprehensive field guide for the novice as well as for the experienced naturalist .

Scholarly content from the Smithsonian packaged in a well-made full color book from DK. I have a whole shelf of these guides...just can't resist them. Check out travel guides published by DK too. Or just about anything else they publish.

[...]

In response to the one star review:

I was right there with you until you misspelled "butterflies." Actually you lost me with your complaint that the butterflies aren't grouped by color, but thanks for cracking me up.

You summed it up. You want a different book. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this one.

Try this:

Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: A Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America

http://www.amazon.com/Caterpillars-Field-Garden-Butterfly-America/dp/0195149874/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1270565504&sr=8-1-fkmr0


Or maybe this is more along the lines of what you have in mind:

My, Oh My--A Butterfly!: All About Butterflies (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=My%2C+Oh+My--A+Butterfly!%3A+All+About+Butterflies+(Cat+in+the+Hat%27s+Learning+Library)&x=0&y=0