I’m sure every macro lover is trying to learn the types of insect species. Personally, I can’t get comfortable until I find at least the family name of an insect. I’m searching hard the internet for that. While sharing the photos I took, it is nice if I can write Latin names.
The book, Insects of Britain and Western Europe, written by Michael Chinery and published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, just hit the spot.
Originally it deals with insects from the UK, but it probably represents insects or insect groups in your country too. There will be some species differences though; genus, family, etc. but it’ll give a hint. clue. It has a completely visual content so it can be obtained without hesitation by those who have a language problem in English.
I admit, I was a little disappointed when I first got it in my hand. I didn’t expect the dimensions of the book to be that small. I’d like to see every detail big. But then as I thought about its purpose, I started to understand that it was a right approach. So, as usual, “function is more important than size.”
The book is 188 x 117mm in size. Printed in cardboard cover. Designed as a field guide, so portability is intended. You can really throw it in your bag and take it anywhere, keep it at your nearby all the time. I can quickly find out what kind of insect I’m looking for. That’s good. If it was a heavy book with thick volumes, it would have to lay it on a table.
The Book is 320 pages. Quality white paper used. It’s got a few different edition. I have the year 2012, 3rd updated edition. That was the last edition on the market when I bought it. The price on the book was £16.99. I paid £17.21 including mail. Prices can vary.
As you can see from the photos, it’s a very colorful book,. I didn’t want to hurt the book by forcing the pages to the end because it was small. That’s why I didn’t photograph the interior pages of my book. I took pictures of the book’s interior pages from the internet. Anyway, there’s no difference. There are over 2300 illustrations in it. Besides insect photos, scale information has been given. So a bug that says X2 next to it, means two times larger than the actual size in print. In the same way, the X10 means it is actually 10 times smaller than the picture. That’s how we can match the size.
After 15 pages of general information from the beginning of the book, starts informations about insect families. Usually there are two pages side-by-side. One of these pages contains images of species, and the other page contains a paragraph about these species. Page designs are very good.
The original introduction of the book is as follows:
More than 2000 of the most commonly observed and most distinctive insect species of Britain and Western Europe, from all orders and most families, are illustrated in this essential pocket guide. The text summarises key identification points, and introductory sections for each group covered give useful guidelines on the characteristics of the orders, families and genera covered. This is the most comprehensive guide available on the insects of this region and will be of great use to all naturalists with an interest in insects.
By the way, I gave my order via eBay and got it in two weeks. No more words, just get one!
