Identification books on the following subjects

[Robert S J Smith]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good identification books on the following subjects…

British Beetles
British Orthoptera
And
British Wasps

Many thanks,

Robert

[Wild-Woman]

Have a look at this site

NHBS | Everything for wildlife, science & environment

You'll find id books on everything you need here.

[Robert S J Smith]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Have a look at this site

NHBS | Everything for wildlife, science & environment

You'll find id books on everything you need here.

Thanks Wild Woman, I've already looked on the site and seen a load of books suitable however my problem is there are so many books on the subjects I don't know which ones are bad and which are good.

[Robert S J Smith]

Bump

[Wild-Woman]

Reviews - to the Grasshoppers and Crickets of Britain and Ireland

This is from the reviews page on WAB. First class id book in my opinion.

[Wild-Woman]

Most of my beetle books are ancient so Paul mabbott might be the chap to guide you re beetle id literature.

[Jason Green]

Evening Robert,

British Wasps:
Royal Entomological Society Handbook, Scolioidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea (Volume 6 part 3b) (O.W. Richards, 1980), and the Naturalist's Handbook 'Solitary Wasps' (P.F. Yeo and S.A. Corbet, 1997). For the Jewel Wasps (Chrysididae), try the Royal Entomological Society Handbook 'Cuckoo-Wasps' (Volume 6, part 5), (D. Morgan, 1984).

These should make a nice starting point. A microscope is a must, for some of these.

Take care,

Jason

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Reviews - to the Grasshoppers and Crickets of Britain and Ireland

This is probably the best single ID guide to British Orthoptera currently available.


For beetles, it really depends how much you want to get into them. Identification will generally require the use of keys for most, probably with study under a microscope, and you are likely to find that you need different keys for different families/genera.
A good start, if you are happy to use keys, is the Field Study Council's "A key to the families of British Beetles" by DM Unwin.
You can then take identification to species level using family keys from the Royal Entomologists Society (or a copy of "A practical handbook of British beetles" by Norman Joy if you can get one - this covers most species, but is old and somewhat out of date, as well as difficult to use).

"A field guide in colour to beetles" by KW Harde, may be useful if you want an illustrated book (look for it secondhand). It doesn't cover all species, illustrating examples from each genus in Britain and Europe, and won't give you firm ID's, but it might help to give you an idea what you are looking at.

[Jason Green]

Originally Posted by RoyW

...or a copy of "A practical handbook of British beetles" by Norman Joy if you can get one - this covers most species, but is old and somewhat out of date, as well as difficult to use).

There's a bit of a sad story behind this one; when it was published and didn't receive the subsequent appreciation he'd have been hoping for, he apparently gave away his collection and discontinued his study of Coleoptera. I read about that a week ago or so, but can't think for the life of me where that was!

I must get a copy one day.

[tristanba]

Wasps of Surrey. Not an identification work but still indispensable for anyone interested in the British fauna