British Wildlife Publishing Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland
Reviews
Views
Date of last review
1
1561
Wed 9, January, 2008
Recommended By
Average Purchase Price
100% of reviewers
£15.00
Quality
Value
Performance
9.00
9.00
9.00
Description:
Describes and illustrates all of Britain's 38 resident and 11 migrant species (2nd edition includes the Small Red-eyed Damselfly and Green Darnier). The species descriptions cover major identifying characteristics and comparisons with similar species; status and conservation; and ecology and behaviour with descriptions of habitat, larval form and behaviour, emergence, feeding, territorial and mating behaviours and egg-laying preferences. The illustrations show both males and females with diagnostic features such as segment markings or head patterns, wingspan and length measurements etc, and all resident species accounts are also accompanied by a distribution map and a chart indicating the flight season. The guide also includes a comprehensive introduction to dragonflies (with sections on the fossil record, world perspective, biology, flight, life history, distribution, habitats and dragonflies and the law), information on creating ponds for dragonflies, field study and practical conservation, and a list of the best places to watch dragonflies throughout Britain and Ireland. The second edition has been fully revised.
Richard Lewington and Illustrations by Richard Lewington
Number of Pages:
160
RRP:
£18.95
Published Date:
1997
Dimensions:
21.2 x 13.6 x 1.2 cm
ISBN:
0953139905
Format
Paperback Hardback
Author
Fourwings Commander of the Wild Empire
Registered: September 2005 Location: Leicestershire Posts: 3655
Review Date: Wed 9, January, 2008
Would you recommend it? Yes |
Total Spent: £15.00| Rating: 9
Strengths:
Excellent drawings, loads of information packed in
Weaknesses:
Perhaps a little too wordy to be a true field guide - only a slight niggle though!!
For several years this was the Dragonfly enthusiasts bible, in recent times its has been superceeded by a couple of new books, one by the same artist.
It is an excellent book and the artwork is simply stunning as you would come to expect from Richard Lewington.
It is crammed with masses of detailed information about the species, life cycles, distribution, flight periods, habitats, in fact anything you could ever wish to know about Odonata.
Its one downside for me is that it is not that easy to use in the field as there is masses of text to read through, aside from that slight niggle this is an excellent book on the subject and one that anyone seriously into Odonata should own.
