Butterflies
Dick
Vane-Wright
With their beautiful wing patterns and colours butterflies immediately catch our attention. Of all creatures they exemplify metamorphosis with the creeping caterpillar transforming into soaring butterfly. But they have also come to be creatures of science, revealing much to biologists about evolution, and the ecological processes and historical accidents that have generated the diversity of life on earth.
Using examples from around the world, leading lepidopterist Dick Vane-Wright explores what it means to be a butterfly, from how the yellow birdwing finds a mate to why the African gaudy commodores produce adults of different colours. Butterflies starts with the familiar life cycle, charting development from egg to adult, mating and egg-laying. It continues by exploring less familiar aspects of the butterfly life-style: how they care for their eggs, the surprising things that some caterpillars eat, what happens inside the caterpillar to create the butterfly; why is it that there are so many variations in adult wing pattern and colour. These and many more questions are raised in this examination of the butterfly, which concludes by considering the threats and opportunities that now face them. Butterflies offers an overview of the biology and diversity of this, the major group of day-flying Lepidoptera.
Published by the Natural History Museum.
Key
features
- Illustrated with images from around the world
- A complete and absorbing natural history of butterflies
- Written by leading lepidopterist
Contents
Introducing butterflies; Becoming; Mating; Laying; Eating; Flying; Communicating; Varying; Evolving; Butterfly futures; Glossary; Index; Further information.
About
the author
Dick Vane-Wright is a specialist on the taxonomy, evolution and classification of butterflies. Through his knowledge about the distribution of species, he has also been involved in evaluating priorities for the conservation of biological diversity. Having first joined the Natural History Museum at the age of 18, he is currently Head of the Department of Entomology. Dick has written numerous scientific papers, co-authored Milkweed Butterflies, and co-edited The Biology of Butterflies, Phylogenetics and Ecology and Systematics and Conservation Evaluation. With Butterflies he aims to bring a love of these enchanting insects to a wider audience.
About
the Life Series
The Natural History Museum's Life Series explores the panorama of the natural world, with in depth coverage of a single plant or animal group, or one of the Earth's diverse ecosystems in each book. The series presents an accessible introduction to the wonders of the natural world suitable for nature enthusiasts everywhere.
Reviews
"SEX. It's something that butterflies are rather good at, which explains why the Lepidoptera are one of the most successful orders of insects, with some 20,000 species worldwide...But there's much more than sex and scandal in this highly readable book. If you want to learn about false eyes or false heads, mimicry and mockers, adaption and evolution, it's all here. Once you've read this book, even the cabbage white will never look the same again." New Scientist
Press
release
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Specifications
ISBN: 0 565 09179 4
Price: £9.95
Format: Paperback
Size: 210 x 235 mm
Extent: 112 pp
Published: June 2003
Subject classification: Popular science; natural history; entomology
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