collins field guide to insects?

[oxycera]

Originally Posted by Toby

Surrey is well served by a series of books published by the Surrey Wildlife Trust which include lots of photos, examples Ladybirds of Surrey and Shieldbugs of Surrey. I think they are competitively priced averaging £12, not bad for hardbacks. You are in Solihull but they may still be of interest.

Surrey Wildlife Trust - Publications

I agree, these are very good and useful wherever you happen to live.

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by oxycera

I agree, these are very good and useful wherever you happen to live.

Agree these are top notch books which I have avidly collected; the most recent title covering the Bees of Surrey.

[Geoff F]

AIDGAP stands for Aids to Identification in Difficult Groups of Animals and Plants. I've just had a look at the site and ordered 4 books to start with. I see that they also produce more involved books, but obviously at a higher price.

This site also has a good range of interesting literature NHBS - For the best books on earth, worldwide

[poschiavanus]

Whilst most of the AIDGAP series titles are good (I find the Sawfly and Lacewing publications mentioned by oxycera very useful), I would not recommend the one on Bugs by Unwin.

The main key is more or less exactly the key to bug families in Southwood and Leston, which is reproduced in Chinery's "Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe". The other groups of Hemiptera are not actually keyed to family in this publication. Obviously the Chinery book contains a lot of additional information making it much better value for money.

There is a real lack of guides in English intermediate in level between the three Chinery books and the keys for serious specialists (e.g., Handbooks for Identification of British Insects). Unfortunately this is likely to remain so whilst systematic biology is not taught in university courses.

posch

[Toby]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Agree these are top notch books which I have avidly collected; the most recent title covering the Bees of Surrey.

Bees of Surrey - hadn't seen that title, thanks for the alert!