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Books Related to Insects Michael Chinery - ISBN: 0007146248
Insects - Amazing Images of Fascinating Creatures - Rated
Technicality: This review is titled after the book, as the other 4 reviews liked by Amazon are clearly for a different book - likely a field guide, which this book isn't.
It's a big book: Bigger than A4, an inch thick and weighs a kilo; it's not a field guide! It is a nice coffee-table production primarily showing exactly what it claims, great photos of wierd and wonderful bugs, including plenty of butterflies and moths.
There is some text, enough to explain what each image is, but whilst full of strange and wonderful facts and pictures, don't consider this to be any form of searchable reference. It is a great book to have on the shelf for arousing an interest and generating wonder at what's out there. I think that's the expectation the title sets, and it delivers.
My only complaint is that the proof-reading was awful. The book is so full of careless mistakes that they distract the reader. For example, inside the rear dust cover there is one paragraph describing the author. It contains both bad grammar and claims Mr Chinery wrote a field guide to "the Guide of Britain". Exam question: Who is the Guide of Britain - discuss...
Mr Chinery - give me a call and I'll happily proof-read your next book.
Otherwise this is a very attractive book if you like interesting photos of odd creatures.
Far too generally Eurocentric to be of great use - Rated
All too many times one reads 'except British Isles'. I would have thought that the handiest and cheapest guide to insects in English published for the British market would have concentrated a bit more on Britain, no matter how much Collins wanted to include a picture of a praying mantis. A book with this much scope needs to be larger, a book this small needs to be more specific.
An excellent guide - Rated
No butterflies or moths but there is a separate guide available to cover those groups. This seems a reasonable decision when publishing in a pocket-sized format as a combined guide would mean that only half the number of species could be covered.
The information in the guide is clear and concise with good quality photographs for every entry. There are also illustrations on many entries that clarify those anatomical differences important for identification of the species or sex.
A fascinating guide that's been invavluable for me in my new found hobby of macro insect photography.
MOTHS & BUTTERFLIES - Rated
are not included in this book, because although they are insects they are a large definitively different and separately studied genus and do not as a rule appear in 'proper' insect books
A book on insects, but not including butterflies and moths - Rated
I'm sure that the information in this book is useful to the observer, but it is simply not complete in that it completely omits butterflies and moths!
