Category: Collection

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Butterflies of Britain and Europe: A Photographic Guide

by Tari Haahtela, Kimmo Saarinen, Pekka Ojalainen and Hannu Aarnio

What?

The definitive photographic guide to all 444 species of European butterflies.

Why?

The macro photography in this volume is simply stunning. The immediacy of the images and the vitality of the colour contrast will make butterfly identification even more of a pleasure. Species are generally pictured in the context of their habitat, with insets highlighting colouration details or sex differences, and the identification data and range maps are very user-friendly. Later in the book there is a focus on European Islands and Eastern European species, to cater for travellers who are looking for easy on-the-spot identification. And it all fits nicely into the average-sized jacket pocket!

Who?

Tari Haahtela, Kimmo Saarinen, Pekka Ojalainen and Hannu Aarnio are a team of dedicated Finnish naturalists that specialise in macro photography. They have travelled the length and breadth of Europe in search of butterflies for this book. Having already written several books on moths and butterflies in Finnish, this is their first English-language title.

As usual, the NHBS ornithology list has expanded over the last year to incorporate many fantastic new books for birdwatchers, conservation workers, and ecologists. We hope you enjoy browsing these, alongside featured classics and bestsellers. The Editor’s Choice selections pick out the very best recent and forthcoming titles in each main subject area.

Our wildlife equipment range is always growing – now over 2000 items – and you will find all the best bird-related gear on the Nest Boxes and Wildlife Kit pages of the catalogue.

A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Malaysia by John Bransbury – only three copies now available.

First published in 1993, A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Malaysia has proven to be a perennial favourite with our globetrotting birding enthusiasts, with its comprehensive annotated checklists and abundance of practical advice.

The book covers both West (Peninsular) Malaysia, and East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). Each site section is introduced with a well-crafted and interesting written portrait of the area and its habitat, and a hand-drawn map – which makes this more than just a convenient reference.

Sadly, this  compact, detailed and informative guide has come to the end of its print run, and we now have just three copies left – so if you, or anyone you know, has an interest in, or is off to discover, the birds of this area, we recommend taking Bransbury along as a thoughtful guide and travelling companion.

This summer, Cambridge University Press publish three new volumes in the Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation series:

Save 20%

on all backlist titles in the series until 31/7/2011

Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

The Private Life of Adders

by Rodger McPhail

What?

An account of the life and behaviour of the adder – one of the UK’s six native reptile species.

Why?

Full of his own close-up photographs, this book is the result of McPhail’s own investigations into the natural history of the adder. The succinct chapters cover the range of subjects from basking, sloughing and venom to predation and the life-cycle. There are also appraisals of habitat management and conservation, and an appendix providing details of further resources. His love and enthusiasm for the countryside and its birds and animals are evident throughout this work which is brought to life by the rich variety of portraits – of adders, and their neighbours.

Who?

Rodger McPhail has had a life-long fascination with adders. Born in Lancashire in 1953, he studied at the Coventry Art College at Lanchester Polytechnic for one year before being accepted at Liverpool Art College in 1972. He is widely known as one of Britain’s most outstanding wildlife and sporting artists. His work is sought after internationally.

“Its comprehensive coverage of the issues associated with woodland creation in Britain cannot fail to be of value”

Despite a slow increase in broadleaved woodland cover in Britain during the last 20 years, woodland species diversity is decreasing and woodland’s potential for enhancing our quality of life is unrealised. In view of the current public and political will to increase woodland cover in Britain, and the need to ensure that newly-created woodland is of the highest possible ecological quality, this book is most welcome.

It is a formal, often detailed and sometimes technical text aimed at countryside planners and practitioners, landowners, conservation organisations and community groups. Its entomological content is limited but, given the potential benefits of newly-created woodland and its associated habitats for so many insect taxa, it fully deserves a mention here.

The main text is divided into two parts. The first five chapters cover the general principles of woodland creation and provide necessary background to a consideration of woodland creation practice in the remaining four. Topics include an overview of woodland cover in Britain, some of the organisms that it supports and its importance for people. Issues associated with climate change and the planning, design and management of new woodland are also considered. Two case studies effectively draw together the various topics discussed in the text.

For invertebrates, the importance of woodland rides, glades and edges is emphasised, and the value of dead wood, neglected coppice and bramble is noted. A table lists invertebrate habitat in woodland. Butterflies receive the most detailed treatment. Survey and monitoring protocol is described and there are tables describing those species likely to occur in newly-created woodland, the colonisation potential of habitat specialists, and larval foodplants.

The book concludes with a useful glossary and lists of acronyms, species mentioned in the text and cited references. The latter represent a wide range of published and unpublished material. Unfortunately there is no index, and the list of species would be more valuable if page numbers referred the names to the text. Nevertheless this is an extremely useful and attractively presented handbook. It is generously illustrated with many figures and 170 images in full colour. Its comprehensive coverage of the issues associated with woodland creation in Britain cannot fail to be of value to its target readership. It also appears to be well-suited as a text for Further Education and foundation degree students studying countryside planning and land management. Certainly, many insects are likely to benefit from its sound advice.

Glenda Orledge,

Antenna – the journal of the Royal Entomological Society

Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

The Natural History of Hoverflies

by Graham E. Rotheray and Francis Gilbert

What?

A groundbreaking new publication on the Syrphidae.

Why?

This is the first book of its kind to present an in-depth examination of the natural history of this diverse and fascinating insect family. Both authors have a long-standing academic interest in the subject (see below), and have delivered a volume that makes a comprehensive assessment of current research and understanding of the Syrphidae, which surely can be considered an essential addition to the entomologist’s library.

Who?

Graham E. Rotheray In 1976, after completing a joint honours Biology/Philosophy degree at Keele University, Graham moved to Cardiff University where he completed a PhD on hoverfly parasitoids under Professor Mike Claridge. In 1979 he moved to Liverpool Museum as Assistant Curator of Invertebrates and in 1981, went to the University of Maryland, USA to undertake a post doctoral position researching natural enemies of the Gypsy Moth. On return to the UK, in 1984 he became Head of the Entomology Section at the National Museums of Scotland, a position he has held ever since.

He is a founder member of the Malloch Society, the Scottish diptera society that specialises in undertaking research on rare flies and was a founder member of the Initiative for Scottish Invertebrates, a federation of Scottish based invertebrate biologists concerned with the biodiversity and conservation of invertebrates in Scotland. He is Honorary Lecturer in the Division of Environmental Sciences, Glasgow University and a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.

Francis Gilbert completed his undergraduate and PhD degrees at St John’s College, Cambridge between 1975 and 1981. For his PhD he studied the morphology and foraging behaviour of adult hoverflies in natural and garden habitats, and particularly the possibility that competition structures hoverfly communities. After finishing his PhD, he went to the USA for two years as a Harkness Fellow, again studying the morphological structure of communities of adult hoverflies in Maine, Florida, Arizona and Oregon. He returned to a Junior Research Fellowship at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, but within a year had obtained a lectureship at the University of Nottingham, where he has remained ever since.

His research concentrates on the evolutionary biology of hoverflies, and the impact of habitat fragmentation on communities and conservation, studying the latter with both model ecosystems in the laboratory and real ecosystems in the Sinai in Egypt.

Martin Kelsey reviews the best-selling Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia, and its companion volume, the Checklist of the Birds of Colombia – both of which are distributed by NHBS.

“This book will be indispensable for anyone interested in Colombia and will be an essential companion in the field.”

Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia

“When I first visited Colombia, A Guide to the Birds of Colombia (Hilty & Brown 1986; reviewed in Ibis 130: 136) had just been published. Not being able to afford a hardback edition, but worried about how its 800+ pages would survive as a paperback in the field, I followed local advice and got it hard-bound in Bogotá. Thereafter I carried my 1.45 kg treasure, wrapped in a plastic bag, in a special shoulder bag along forest trails. It was invaluable. The new guide, however, fully deserves its epithet ‘Field’. A full kilogram lighter than Hilty and Brown and less than 250 pages long, this remarkable book will fit in a pocket. Unlike the former, it illustrates in colour all of the species (nearly 1900) recorded in Colombia. This it achieves in 225 plates, which despite also fitting in distribution maps and brief notes for each species, appear far less crowded than in Hilty and Brown, especially for groups such as hummingbirds (Trochilidae), antbirds (Thamnophilidae) and tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae). There are coloured maps showing relief, political boundaries, vegetation types, rainfall, Endemic Bird Areas and Protected Areas, as well as lists of endemics, ‘near-endemics’, threatened species and species lists for Colombia’s offshore islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. Unlike Hilty and Brown, there is no separate text section. To meet this book’s rigorous requirements for economy, species notes are restricted to the few words that can be fitted onto the plates, highlighting information to help identification: habitat, status, diagnostic behaviour, perhaps one or two plumage features to separate from confusion species and, for some groups only, voice. It is a practical compromise which works extremely well to meet the stated objective of the book: to be easy and quick to use in the field, with the emphasis on identification. Its compact design is based on an extensive consultation with birders. There will, of course, be times when you need to refer back to the more extensive and comprehensive coverage of Hilty and Brown, but I recall that even with that work, which was my starting point in those days, I still needed to consult additional literature and museum skins from time to time. This book will be indispensable for anyone interested in Colombia and will be an essential companion in the field. There is also another important reason why I warmly recommend it. It is published by the pioneering Colombian NGO ProAves and all profits from sales will go towards their work in bird conservation and education. In just over 10 years since its formation, this group of energetic young fieldworkers and conservationists have made many exciting discoveries, helped to establish two national parks and currently own and manage a network of 18 bird reserves, as well as implementing integrated conservation and rural development projects and promoting bird tourism. The authors intend to publish a Spanish edition soon, which should have great appeal to both students and the general public in Colombia. As the country becomes safer to travel in, there is a growing interest in getting to know its extraordinary biodiversity through visits to reserves and national parks offering access and good infrastructure. ”

Checklist of the Birds of Colombia

“The bilingual Checklist to the Birds of Colombia serves as a companion volume to the Field Guide. It is the most up-to-date list for Colombia, which has more bird species recorded than for any other country. Subspecies are given (with an indication of where they are found) and endemic species are highlighted in bold. A further column indicates whether the species carries a threatened status and in which ProAves bird reserves it is known to occur (no fewer than 1130 species have been recorded in these 18 reserves, a remarkable 12% of the world’s total!). There are eight blank columns for personal use. The inside back cover carries a coloured map showing the location of these reserves, as well as national parks and other protected areas. Much as I still treasure my copy of Hilty and Brown, I wish that these publications had been around as well during my early travels in Colombia, to complement the former and save on considerable wear and tear! I will certainly be using this new field guide and the checklist on my next trip and I unreservedly recommend others to do the same.”

Martin Kelsey,

IBIS The International Journal of Avian Science

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Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Plant Galls

by Margaret Redfern

What?

The latest volume in the New Naturalists series takes on one of the more enigmatic aspects of botany.

Why?

Oak apples, robin’s pincushions, marble galls and witches’ brooms. Margaret Redfern’s expertise on the curious subject of plant galls, presented in this new volume in the New Naturalist series, opens a window onto a less considered aspect of botany. What are they? How are they formed? Here you will find insight into the organisms that cause plant galls, the structure and ecology of the galls themselves, and the effect these complex and diverse phenomena have on the host plants, as well as broader evolutionary and historical perspectives.

Margaret Redfern is an authority on plant galls who has written numerous books on the subject.

Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Gorillas: Living on the Edge

by Andy Rouse

What?

Another brilliant photo-story, introducing the critically endangered mountain gorillas of the Virunga Volcanoes of East Africa.

Why?

A follow-up to his incredibly successful previous project, Tigers: A Celebration of Life, Gorillas: Living on the Edge is full of vivid portraits of episodes in the gorillas’ daily lives. Rouse demonstrates his superb “knack for capturing this great ape doing interesting things”, picking up an extraordinary range of facial expressions and intimate and entertaining moments. As 25% of the profits of Tigers went to tiger conservation projects, so 25% of the profits of Gorillas will go to conservation projects in Rwanda, supporting their continued protection of this characterful ape in its last stronghold.

Who?

Andy Rouse is an inspirational wildlife photographer who is well-known the world over. He is famed for his ability to capture moments from the lives of animals and birds in the wild, getting “up close and personal” with some of the most fascinating and often potentially dangerous animals.

Andy has starred in his own TV series and made numerous TV appearances, has been a pioneering user of digital technology in his work, and he has consistently won awards in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. He has also been runner up in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year and had several winners in the Nature’s Best competition.

Read more on Andy Rouse’s website