Hoopoe – A blog by nhbs

 Review published in the October 2011 Volume of the Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society

A Guide to the Hawkmoths of the Serra dos Orgaos, South-eastern Brazil
(Guia dos Sphingidae da Serra dos Orgaos, Sudeste do Brasil)

Alan Martin, Alexandre Soares and Jorge Bizarro

Published by REGUA

Hawkmoths have an enduring appeal for their attractiveness, size, sheer power and their breathtaking diversity, particularly in tropical regions. This attractive volume deals with the 110 Neotropical species found in a small reserve which is part of the Atalntic Rainforest in south-eastern Brazil, and an additional 4 species that have been recorded close by. The introductory chapters are written in both Portuguese and English, and cover a preface, checklist of hawkmoths, introduction to the region, hawkmoth taxonomy, life history and development. The main text of the book deals with the individual species and is written in English only. For each species there is a reference to the original description, synonyms, type locality, common name where applicable, size, notes on world-wide distribution and tips for identification. There then follows 37 pages of colour illustrations showing both upper and under-sides of set specimens, illustrating both sexes where they are known. There are four pages of habitat photographs, and a final 10 pages of colour photographs of living moths. The work concludes with a number of appendices covering notes on an historic collector, the reserve, some details of key species, and notes on the host-plants of Neotropical Sphingidae, distribution of species by Province, a phenology table and detailed bibliography.

One of the appendices is a brief biopic of Henry Richard Pearson (1911 – 2004), an Englishman who was one of the first entomologists to study Lepidoptera in the region. He amassed a collection of more than 12,000 specimens, which he donated to the Museo Nacional of Rio de Janeiro.

There are many books available on world hawkmoths, a good many of them substantial monographs that are very costly to purchase. By comparison, this is a modest volume but very well produced, well written and packed with information. The qualities of the colour reproduction are adequate for the set specimens, but very good for the habitat and live moth pictures – and the price is very attractive! The authors and staff of the Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu are to be congratulated on producing an inexpensive and informative guide to these moths, which will be of great help to visitors to this region of Brazil, as well as those in other parts of Neotropical South America and those with a general interest in the world Sphingidae.

Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society

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

Frozen Planet: A World Beyond Imagination

Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz

What?

The book that accompanies the latest extraordinary series from the BBC Natural History Unit, currently showing on BBC One on Wednesday evenings.

Why?

Roughly following the episode format of the series, Frozen Planet depicts the spectacular polar worlds and the unique lives of the animals that live in them. As series presenter David Attenborough says in his foreword, the pictures and film produced during the three-year process of creating the series “record, in their full splendour, these astonishing wonderlands that have existed for hundreds of thousands of years before humans reached them.”

Once again the insight and dramatic visual impact of these painstakingly crafted documentaries is invaluable in bringing environmental concerns to the forefront of people’s minds, while being a testament to the beauty and diversity of life on Earth and, of course, the state of modern cinematographic technology.

The book is replete with stunning photography and includes some of the sequences from the films, and the accompanying narrative brings to life not only the animals and their habitats but also the fascinating stories behind the making of the series.

Who?

Alastair Fothergill was the executive producer of the BBC series, Frozen Planet. He studied zoology at the University of Durham, joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983 and was appointed head of the unit in 1992. Alastair is the author of four books.

Vanessa Berlowitz was the series producer. She studied human sciences at the University of Oxford, where she took up photography and made her first films. She joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1991 and went on to become a multiple award-winning director and producer. She has also contributed to a number of books and written on wildlife and conservation for magazines.

The DVD and Blu-ray editions of the series will be available in December – you can pre-order them today.

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

Icelandic Bird Guide: Appearance, Way of Life, Habitat

Johann Oli Hilmarsson

What?

New edition of the popular guide to Iceland’s birds by the country’s pre-eminent ornithologist and photographer, Johann Oli Hilmarsson.

Why?

This attractive and informative guide completely revises and expands the previous edition and covers the appearance, behaviour and other identifying features of over 160 different species.

Includes detailed information, and maps and diagrams, about breeding range, seasonal distribution, migration behaviour, breeding and feeding, and plumage variations by age, size and sex.

Illustrated with more than 700 photos, species are depicted clearly in their natural habitat in various behavioural modes.

Who?

Johann Oli Hilmarsson is a leading authority on the birds of Iceland and one of the country’s most experienced bird photographers. He has written numerous articles on birds in books, magazines and newspapers.  He has held many courses, lectures and exhibitions and his photographs have been published around the world, and he is also president of BirdLife Iceland.

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

The Freshwater Algal Flora of the British Isles: An Identification Guide to Freshwater and Terrestrial Algae

Edited by DM John, AJ Brook and BA Whitton

What?

New edition of the pre-eminent algae identification guide for freshwater and terrestrial algae of the British Isles, excluding diatoms.

Why?

Since the first edition of the Flora, published in 2001, there have been changes in classification and taxonomy of many of the algae, and around 200 extra species have been defined; new information is available about ecology, molecular biology and distribution patterns. This edition addresses these developments and revisions and is therefore an up-to-date account of 2,400 algal species of the British Isles.

Detailed description are accompanied by line drawings, colour plates  and user-friendly keys for accurate identification of genus and species.

The CD of the previous edition has been replaced by a DVD featuring a photo catalogue over 1,400 images, illustrated articles and video clips, and the book is introduced by a series of essays on various topics related to algal flora research.

Who?

David M. John is Adjubct Professor at the Martin Ryan Institute. National University of Ireland, Galway, and Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum in London.

Brian A. Whitton is Emeritus Professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Durham University

Alan J. Brook is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Buckingham

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

Wildlife In Printmaking

Edited by Carry Akroyd

What?

Volume 30 in the Langford Press Wildlife Art Series.

Why?

This characterful volume features the work of 22 artists who are working within this fascinating and versatile medium to represent the natural world. With its variety of style and subject matter, Wildlife In Printmaking amounts to a rich and engrossing compendium of the best of the genre from the last few decades. The direct, yet abstract, quality of the medium of print is conveyed lucidly through the design and presentation of the book, and the artist segments – which balance autobiographical introductions, examples of their work, and accompanying descriptions of the creative process – are interspersed with three subject ‘stories’: Winter, Water and Insects & Flowers.

Familiar names include Robert Gillmor, whose artwork features on the covers of recent volumes in the New Naturalists series, and Andrew Haslen, who we interviewed here on the Hoopoe last year on publication of his book The Winter Hare.

Who?

Carry Akroyd has initiated many projects and exhibitions that have brought together groups of artists, and editing this book has been an extension of that curatorial experience. Carry has been making prints for 40 years, and her book Natures Powers and Spells: Landscape Change, John Clare and Me is also published in the Wildlife Art Series.

The Norfolk Bird Atlas: Summer and Winter Distributions 1999-2007

 

“This handsome volume is the successor to Kelly’s The Norfolk Bird Atlas (1986). The famous county has 1459 tetrads, and this new work is a triumph of organization, including as it does the contributions of over 400 observers, the number and quality of whom few counties could hope to equal. Illustrations are lavish, although the lovely photographs, mostly by David Tipling, sometimes overwhelm the maps and drawings. Indeed, the last, which can be useful for providing landscape background, can seem redundant.

The authors have aimed for a much more detailed treatment than any previous county Atlas. They follow the current county boundaries and have even excluded sections of border tetrads which are outside Norfolk. Any reader involved in the current national Atlas will immediately notice four features: November and July are excluded, the summer and winter periods being sub-divided at 15 May and 15 January; no time limit is set to tetrad visits, which average 3-4 hours; the summer counting units are ‘breeding pairs’ (which may be single adults or families!), their totals being shown by the size of the coloured dots on the maps; and no distinction is generally drawn between confirmed and probable breeding, both of which are defined as ‘likely’ and are represented by shading. For most species there are also maps showing changes since Kelly’s period. The authors are frank about possible dangers in their radical changes to what have become traditional systems, but they are surely right in their advocacy of such methods for local Atlases, which must aim for the fullest possible coverage rather than for mere sampling.

There are two important additions to the main Atlas text: P. W. Lambley’s section on habitats; and Marchant’s ‘Overview of Norfolk’s Birds’.”

D.K.B.

IBIS The International Journal of Avian Science