We continue with the introduction of books on Entomology (insect science) with the book “The Book of Beetles A Life-Sized Guide to Six Hundred of Nature’s Gems“. In a previous article, there is another book “Beetles of Eastern North America” with the same subject, competing with this one but the scope of this book is a little different.
The book was created with the participation of Patrice Bouchard, Arthur V. Evans, Maria Lourdes Chamorro, and Yves Bousquet. It is quite large, having dimensions of 193mm x 278mm. 656 pages and thick-bound printing weighs 2150 g.
Fortunately, these dimensions are definitely worth. The book is a complete visual feast. After giving general information about insects and beetles at the entrance, 600 beetles selected from all over the world are introduced. One page is reserved for each. The map of the world is marked on their territory. A big detailed photo and another one scaled to the actual size are printed.
Brief information such as genus, species, habitat and nutrition given as a label beside the map reflects the basic features at first glance.
The book doesn’t limit itself to a certain region, it tries to reflect the diversity of the coleoptera order worldwide. It has given place to charming species for macro lovers. Although most of them do not exist globally, we at least have the opportunity to watch them here. Particularly those with metallic green, red colors with a jewelery shine are quite impressive .
It was very informative that the real size was given. Sometimes it is amazing to see that a species that looks very detailed and imposing is a few millimeters in reality, and sometimes it is the same size as the big photograph and it overflows the page.
Compared to the other book, it doesn’t help much in terms of finding the species of a beetle in our photo. Because we’re not lucky enough to photograph most of them. But it’s a great book in terms of recognizing diversity and getting visual pleasure. I can say this book is one of the treasures I couldn’t find when i was a child.
The book can be easily found and retrieved via eBay. I got it at a cost of £ 23.90 including mail. There’s one more edition of the book. I don’t think there is a difference except the cover. Both printed at the end of 2014.
