United States
£ GBP
By the author of the acclaimed A Comprehensive Guide to Insects of Britain & Ireland, this new guide, the first of its kind, features many of the large, spectacular insects a visitor to southern Europe and the Mediterranean is likely to encounter. The guide covers 1500 insect species including many endemics, and represents all the major groups of this region.
As the Mediterranean and southern European fauna is massive in comparison with Britain (a conservative estimate placing the number at 66,000), the guide only covers representative species from most insect orders, concentrating on what the naturalist, photographer, or holidaymaker is likely to notice.
"[...] this book is a quantum leap forward. The photographs are generally excellent, the species descriptions are clear, often with the defining features clarifed, and there are distribution maps for every species. [...] The book covers 1,500 species, which, since the area contains an estimated minimum of 66,000 species, represents only 2.27% of the total. The selection, however, is limited to those that are reasonably conspicuous and identifable in the feld, so that most of those not covered may be of interest only to the specialist. In practice, it seems to be a well-chosen selection. [...] Would I recommend this to a friend (or British Wildlife reader)? Unhesitatingly – it takes the possibilities for insect identifcation in southern Europe into a new realm. Would I buy it myself? Absolutely, I already had, and I would buy it again if I lost this copy. I also like the fact that it is produced by an adventurous, small publisher, and that publisher has done an excellent job of producing it, at a reasonable price. [...] Buy it, it is excellent!"
– Bob Gibbons, British Wildlife, Volume 29(2)
