The best field guide to North American insects
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"In this century," according to ecologist Paul R. Ehrlich, "no one has done more to promote an interest in living creatures than Roger Tory Peterson, the inventor of the modern field guide." Peterson's "Guide to the Birds" - "the first modern field guide" - was published in 1934. Its pioneering approach was to use visual characteristics rather than technical data to identify species. This was achieved by grouping similar species together on a plate, using clear, two-dimensional illustrations, and pointers to key field marks as well as succinct text, a combination known as the Peterson Identification System. That revolutionary style was later applied to a host of field guides covering anything from the night sky to moths and geology to mushrooms and including the present volume.
Here we have Number 19 in the Peterson Field Guide Series, published in 1970 and still in the original edition. Borror, an entomologist and well-known sound-recordist, is the author and contributed line-drawings. The main illustrations, in colour and monochrome, are by Richard White.
With over 90,000 species of insects in America north of Mexico, a field guide to the insects must choose between being highly selective or else providing an overview to enable the user to identify major taxonomic groups. This guide achieves the latter aim admirably, allowing the reader to identify most insects to family level for 579 families. The system will be very familiar to those who grew up on, for example, Michael Chinery's "Field Guide to the Insects of Britain and Northern Europe" (on Amazon: ISBN 0002199181). Apart from the systematic text, there are introductory chapters on collecting insects, studying live insects and basic insect biology as well as a handy Glossary.
Because of the mammoth diversity of insects, a single volume work cannot be expected to allow the reader to identify insects to species by using colour plates. Indeed, many insects are simply not identifiable without a specimen. So, by the very nature of the subject matter, this may not be a book to be used by the unprepared casual observer. However, serious amateur naturalists have for decades enjoyed it as an invaluable aid to insect identification.
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This reprint of the 1970 field guide remains one of the best
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The guide aims to cover insects in America north of Mexico to family level. Few families are illustrated by more than a single figure of an adult and, while generally a single sex is shown, exceptions are made for some insects, for example in the color plates of damselflies. Where the sexes are very distinct (e.g. tussock moths or butterflies) it would have been helpful to show figures of both sexes. The book is predominantly one designed for identification and while it provides excellent coverage and a wonderful selection of figures, it rarely includes keys to help the novice zero on a particular family. The endpapers provide a quick and helpful guide to the principal insect orders, but once that level is reached, the reader must hunt out the descriptions of each suborder and/or superfamily to determine the appropriate group. The significant criteria that distinguish these suborders/superfamilies would be much easier to learn and compare were their descriptions put together on the same page rather than scattered through the section waiting to be discovered by searching the text or looking up the appropriate page by using the index. There is good chapter on collection methods and a brief introduction to insect structure and growth. Deficiences include the following - The book was originally published in 1970: however, the publisher has not taken the opportunity to update the original bibliography in any of the reprints. Nor have resources like Entomological organizations been listed. While the worldwide web makes it easier to access this new information, it would have been helpful to see the experts' recommendations.
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This book is valuable for both scientists and lay-people.
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There are few books that can carry the responsibility of identifying insects easily. This is one of them. More illustrations would be helpful as would more information, but the limits of a field guide size limit this. It's a sufficiently detailed book that field researchers can use it but not so scientific (read opaque) that naturalists can't use it. It would be a useful book for anyone who's identifying insects and has little formal training in entomology. It'd be nice if the authors covered arachnids, too.
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great book
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This book is the most comprehensive general field guide to insects available. It has both good pictures and text that can help the amateur identify insects down to the family and occasionally down to genus and species.
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Excellent guide for one starting an interest in insects.
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This book has some really great pictures that can help the amateur identify insects down to the family and occasionally down to class.
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