European butterfly field guide (1 Viewer)

[Phil Andrews]

I'm looking for recommendations for a good European butterfly field guide - ideally the whole of Europe but if such a thing doesn't exist I would like one which describes species which occur in France well.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Butterflies of Britain and Europe: A Photographic Guide (Bloomsbury Naturalist): Amazon.co.uk: Tari Haahtela: 9781472960535: Books

Buy Butterflies of Britain and Europe: A Photographic Guide (Bloomsbury Naturalist) 2 by Tari Haahtela (ISBN: 9781472960535) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

Collins Butterfly Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe: Amazon.co.uk: Tolman, Tom, Lewington, Richard: 9780007279777: Books

Buy Collins Butterfly Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe Illustrated by Tolman, Tom, Lewington, Richard (ISBN: 9780007279777) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Phil Andrews]

Many thanks Andy - I will take a look

 

[Jos Stratford]

Of these two, I personally think the Collins is by far the better.

 

[THE_FERN]

Of these two, I personally think the Collins is by far the better.

Agree but unless it's changed since my old copy, a bit difficult to use and navigate, with fairly horrible maps. Lewington is the best insect artist by far in my opinion

 

[StuartReeves]

I haven't used it, but the free photoguide available via: this link looks useful.

Direct link here.

 

[Harrybongo]

Agree but unless it's changed since my old copy, a bit difficult to use and navigate, with fairly horrible maps. Lewington is the best insect artist by far in my opinion

Totally agree! Excellent artist!

 

[Owene]

I find that collins has very small text and slightly off range maps but is still an excellent book.

 

[Andy Hurley]

Collins Butterfly Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe: Amazon.co.uk: Tolman, Tom, Lewington, Richard: 9780007279777: Books

Buy Collins Butterfly Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe Illustrated by Tolman, Tom, Lewington, Richard (ISBN: 9780007279777) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

I have this and agree with Owene

I find that collins has very small text and slightly off range maps but is still an excellent book.

Maps are out of date the moment they are published..

 

[Andy Adcock]

I find that collins has very small text and slightly off range maps but is still an excellent book.

I know from my time living in Russia, that some of the species maps are way off, Common Map, (no pun intended) Cyrestis thyodamas for example which I was finding, commonly, on my patch in St Petersburg.

In regard to the small text, there has to be a compromise I think, increasing the font size would lead to the book being bigger, leading to people complaining that it was too big to be a field guide, either that or some text would have to be ommited.

 

[Andy Hurley]

I know from my time living in Russia, that some of the species maps are way off, Common Map, (no pun intended) Cyrestis thyodamas for example which I was finding, commonly, on my patch in St Petersburg.

Sometimes the source info is out of date at the time of publication, but it can also be incorrect

In regard to the small text, there has to be a compromise I think, increasing the font size would lead to the book being bigger, leading to people complaining that it was too big to be a field guide, either that or some text would have to be ommited.

This is true and it is always going to be a compromise. There are online apps especially for birds that are just online versions of the book version. They are up dated too, so may be advantageous if you have a screen large enough to view them.

 

[James Lowther]

This website is an excellent (nearly but not quite comprehensive) companion to the Collins book. Has much more information on actual ID criteria.

HOME on euroButterflies by Matt Rowlings

Photographs, identification and field notes for European butterflies. This is the HOME, euroButterflies.com page.

www.eurobutterflies.com

Cheers
James

 

[Andy Adcock]

I've spoken with Matt a few times over the years and he's always been very receptive to ID queries, always very helpful.