collins field guide to insects?

[squishy]

i've seen this book, and it looks like the kind of thing i've been looking for.

anybody got one?

[Action_Man]

I have the Collins Complete British Insects by Michael Chinery, is this the one you mean ? ...

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by Action_Man

I have the Collins Complete British Insects by Michael Chinery, is this the one you mean ? ...

I've got Collins "A Field Guide To The Insects Of Britain And Northern Europe - by Michael Chinery", (Might be the same book). Very good it is too - in my layman's opinion.

Regards
Mike.

[NickCantle]

Chinery's Collins book is decent

[Action_Man]

I have just flicked through my copy, and it is very informative, the photographs are of excellent quality, one gripe i have is that around 50% of it contains information about Butterflies and Moths, not something i`m greatly interested in ...

[oxycera]

The Collins guides are good beginners guides - but of course they only illustrate a fraction of the British species and therefore are not much use for accurate identification to species level (apart from butterflies, some of the moths etc.)

[squishy]

yes, its the field guide to insects of 'A Field Guide To The Insects Of Britain And Northern Europe' that i'm looking at.

i already have complete british insects, but am looking for something just that little bit more detailed.

would you recommend it to a slightly-better-then-amatuer insect lover LL?

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by squishy

yes, its the field guide to insects of 'A Field Guide To The Insects Of Britain And Northern Europe' that i'm looking at.

i already have complete british insects, but am looking for something just that little bit more detailed.

would you recommend it to a slightly-better-then-amatuer insect lover LL?

I have both of these and Chinery's Insects of Britain and western Europe too which I think is actually better than the 'and Northern Europe'

MOre the better I say!!

[Paul mabbott]

As Oxycera says all of these insect books are only skimming the surface but useful for getting to the correct order or maybe family. "FGIBNE" is useful in that there are written descriptions of the orders/families which are very good summaries and give a lot of background information on behaviour, ecology, numbers &c. Being northern, you are not likely to be confused by descriptions of southern species which are very unlikely to be seen in UK .... yet. This latter is a difficulty with the parallel book "FGIB and Western Europe" - has lots of southern insects and lacks the background information.

Originally Posted by squishy

yes, its the field guide to insects of 'A Field Guide To The Insects Of Britain And Northern Europe' that i'm looking at.

i already have complete british insects, but am looking for something just that little bit more detailed.

would you recommend it to a slightly-better-then-amatuer insect lover LL?

[Toby]

I have his Complete British Insects, Collins 2005 - there is a strong bias to moths and not nearly enough flies.