Pisces Publications A photographic guide to Insects of the New Forest and surrounding area
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Date of last review
1
3085
Mon 4, July, 2011
Recommended By
Average Purchase Price
100% of reviewers
£18.00
Quality
Value
Performance
9.00
9.00
9.00
Description:
Packed with over 1600 stunning images, this unique photographic guide is the first book on the fascinating range of insects in the New Forest and surrounding area. The New Forest National Park is one of Britain’s richest areas for insects, with an estimated 63% of the UK species. This guide is aimed at experts and wildlife-enthusiasts of all ages living in or visiting the New Forest, but also those throughout the UK and abroad. The photographs include behavioural images and are accompanied by a concise text with key information and locations in which to identify, enjoy and photograph these insects. Around 1300 species are included, with full coverage of butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies, shieldbugs, grasshoppers and related insects, amongst others. Sections on the history of entomology in the New Forest and information on different habitats are also included.
Registered: July 2008 Location: Near the Brownwich and Chilling cliffs Posts: 989
Review Date: Mon 4, July, 2011
Would you recommend it? Yes |
Total Spent: £18.00| Rating: 9
Strengths:
Colour photography, clear text
Weaknesses:
Key to which pic is which - takes a minute to master
I won't click 10 out of 10 on principle, but this beats other photographic guides I have - like on Bumblebees, Sea and Shore Life, etc. The photographs are bright and clear - making it very useful for ID, and absorbing just to look through if it's raining! If you know roughly which section, like Bugs or Bush-crickets, you can go straight to the relevant pages and flick through to compare with an insect you’ve just seen or photographed. Sometimes it includes different forms of the same insect, like nymph and adult, or spring form v summer – male underside of wing v female – which can otherwise be confusing. And for anybody more advanced, and folk looking for specific species, there's some subtler ID info, and notes on where rarer species are found. The pictures, up to 15 per page, are close-up so you can see the detail, and fill every righthand page of the book. In the text opposite you get the Latin name (plus common if there is one), size, status and comments about ID and Habitat. There’s quite a lot about the New Forest under Habitat, including specific locations for more unusual species, but with more general comments about distribution, and when adults are most likely to be seen, so the book is not as local as it sounds and should work well anywhere I'd have thought, certainly in the south. Sizewise it would be OK (just) to carry all day, seems robust, has a laminated cover and nicely slippery pages. To give an idea, I’ll quote a first para on a random page (any mistakes are mine for sure) – which comes opposite pictures of Nalassus laevioctostriatus mating pair; Prionychus ater; Pseudocistela ceramboides; Diaperis boleti; Opatrum sabulosum:
DARKLING BEETLES – Family Tenebrionidae
UK: 47 species
New Forest: at least 19 species (40%), presumably under recorded
Most likely to be seen is Nalassus laevioctostriatus (7-11mm, common). The broad-bodied Prionychus ater (12-15mm, local) is a nocturnal species in Denny Wood and elsewhere on black wood mould. Pseudocistela ceramboides (10-12mm, local) may be seen on decayed oaks and beech, or at hawthorn flowers. Diaperis boleti (6-8mm, rare) develops deep inside large brackets of fungi Piptoporus betulinus on birch. Opatrum sabulosum (7-9mm, rare) is mainly coastal.
On the same page then come Cardinal Beetles - Family Pyrochroidae, and False Darkling Beetles - Family Melandryidae.
Subsequently I thought about photographing a couple of pages to insert in the thread about insect books, in the hope they'll give a bit more of an idea about the style and level of this book... this should be the link >> http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ar...p?photo=167127
