Good Book on Caterpillars

[nightshade]

Can anyone recommend a good book on caterpillar ID so I can answer some of the posts on here ?

[UB4 gardener]

for late instar (older/full grown) macro moth caterpillars you can try http://ukmoths.org.uk/porter.php some are easier than others. A website that is under developement http://www.ukleps.org/ is also quite good to compare to also (but you need to know what you are looking for on this one.

Chris

[Wild-Woman]

I have Caterpillars of the British Isles by Jim Porter. It's very good although some of the pictures don't show markings very well. It's pricey about £50 but I got mine from Amazon for £30-i think. Julie

[Deer Stalker]

Another one is the Collins Field Guide to Caterpillars Britain & Europe. ISBN 0-00-219080-X.
About £17. Not as good as the Gim Porter one, but its ok.

[Dan Salter]

I had wondered about this too as many moth or butterfly field guides dont have the caterpillars ...infact the only one i found so far was a small collins pocket guide to butterflies.

It would be nice in guides to have the relevant caterpillar pictured with the moth or butterfly it grows into?...this makes sense to me ? but i bet someone will come back and reply to this telling me a dam good reason why they dont do this?

infact why dont they picture the egg of a bird next to its pic in a field guide too? that would be useful if you find an empty shell etc.

[asheleaf]

'Britains Butterflies' by Tomlinson, pub by WILDGuides, includes pics of caterpillars, eggs, chrysalis and adult variations. Its a brilliant book. I also have the Jim Porter caterpillar book and can usually pin down an ident just by looking at the pics and confirming via the text. I've failed to identify on a couple of occasions but have never 'mis-identified' yet!! I'm just a beginner though so I'm sure it will come.

Ashe