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Product Description
Product Description
An important new enlarged edition of the bestselling and most comprehensive guide to larger moths in Great Britain and Ireland. This guide, first published in 2003, is now considered the moth enthusiast's 'bible'. Contains more than 1,700 exquisitely detailed artworks of over 880 species. This edition contains additional illustrations and descriptions of new species. Also, further paintings of details and forms which will help with identification. The plates have now been grouped together for ease of use. The text has been revised throughout to include the latest information.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 66 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I started mothing I learnt identification from the Skinner volume. As has been said in other reviews Skinner gives no help in the text to sort the moths out. What is more, although the moths are photographed the reproduction is not good so details are lost along with your temper.
The book by Waring et al sorts a lot of this out as the paintings done by Richard Lewington are superb. The moths sit as you see them and shape is a large factor in identification. The text helps a great deal too telling you the important points to look for in identification. It also supplies details on range, emergence time and how common they are all of which help a lot during use.
The layout of the moths through the book follows that given in the British checklist. This is identical to that in other books so moving from one volume to another is easy if confirmation is required. It is also a handbook so it will fit in your pocket.
There are one or two problems. The first is the layout of the book. The pictures are not scattered through the book along with text relevant to each species, they are provided in four groups. Immediately you have trouble finding the pictures. I have ended up marking the site of the pictures with tabs of insulating tape just so that I can locate them. Then starting from a picture of moth, is the text for that species positioned in front or later in the book? Could be either. This may sound silly but time is precious when the moth may disappear any scond! If you are going to group the pictures, I think putting them all in a single group, at the back of the book makes far more sense.
Second for many species the text supplies "similar species". This is a good idea but some of the "similar species" do not look similar at all! In other cases they state "no similar species" and this simply is not true. Some identification problems could have been taken further as there are some groups of moths like: Uncertain, Rustic, Powdered Rustic, Vines rustic etc which are a nightmare to tell apart. They have tried reasonably well but perhaps a small section of text and a table describing the key points may be the way forward.
A third point is the inclusion of pictures of caterpillars. A good idea but you have to put ALL the caterpillars in for it to make sense. Indeed there is another book that does this so why bother wasting space in this way?
Despite all this twining on, I think it is the best Macro moth out there by far so I thoroughly recommend it.
101 of 105 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In a short time, I've learnt to ID Britain's butterflies with only this book and a pair of close-focusing binoculars - it's all you need.
Lewington's illustrations (of all four life stages) are wonderful; that perfect marriage of science and art that makes such a field guide a thing of beauty as well as of use.
The supporting text, angled towards finding and identifying, provides a good amount of information for a guide of this size.
Other butterfly guides are burdened by European butterflies (440) that you wont see on this island; this book contains just the UK species (59) making it's SO much easier to ID stuff.
The one-page-per-butterfly format works perfectly and includes a distribution map and a chart showing when each of the stages is active.
I own quite a few field guides that I use for Britain, but in a house fire, this would be the one I'd grab on the way out.
Lewington's illustrations (of all four life stages) are wonderful; that perfect marriage of science and art that makes such a field guide a thing of beauty as well as of use.
The supporting text, angled towards finding and identifying, provides a good amount of information for a guide of this size.
Other butterfly guides are burdened by European butterflies (440) that you wont see on this island; this book contains just the UK species (59) making it's SO much easier to ID stuff.
The one-page-per-butterfly format works perfectly and includes a distribution map and a chart showing when each of the stages is active.
I own quite a few field guides that I use for Britain, but in a house fire, this would be the one I'd grab on the way out.
96 of 100 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first became interested in moths in the mid-seventies, when identification was via the 2-volume Richard South publication in Warne's Wayside & Woodland series - first published in 1907. When I resumed my interest quite recently, Skinner's guide, published in 1984 with its much friendlier layout, had superseded South's. Both of these books required the moths to be identified from photographs of set specimens, and this made many of the less distinctive species difficult to identify, without similarly killing and setting the specimen and even then, the reproduction of the plates or the condition of the specimen used, made this sometimes doubtful. This new book contains precisely painted illustrations of all the "macro" moths recorded in Britain and Ireland, in their natural resting postures, enabling identification without killing or other manipulation of the moth. It is easy to peruse the plates and eliminate those that are simply the wrong shape or size and also to see readily, the shape and distribution of the key patterns of the wings. Occasionally other key points are illustrated, where these help , such as the hindwing of the Alchymist. Where variation exists within a species, this is illustrated too. The plates and the text are easily cross-referenced, with the exception within the text of the reference to similar species, where plate numbers would have helped.
For each species there are notes on Field Characters, Similar Species (features sadly missing from the Skinner guide), Habitat, and Status & Distribution (amongst others). After 2 days use, I am confidently identifying the smaller and less distinctive noctuids, with great confidence, where previously the guide(s) available were inadequate for this. I've even put names to some photographs that had been sitting on my computer, unidentified for some time.
Technical terms are virtually absent - for example, the parts of the wing are referred to as "leading edge", "tip", "outer edge" etc, and these are explained and illustrated in the introduction, which gives brief explanatory notes on moth classification and identification.
This is a really well designed and presented book, written and illustrated by experts. The popularity of moths will take off!
For each species there are notes on Field Characters, Similar Species (features sadly missing from the Skinner guide), Habitat, and Status & Distribution (amongst others). After 2 days use, I am confidently identifying the smaller and less distinctive noctuids, with great confidence, where previously the guide(s) available were inadequate for this. I've even put names to some photographs that had been sitting on my computer, unidentified for some time.
Technical terms are virtually absent - for example, the parts of the wing are referred to as "leading edge", "tip", "outer edge" etc, and these are explained and illustrated in the introduction, which gives brief explanatory notes on moth classification and identification.
This is a really well designed and presented book, written and illustrated by experts. The popularity of moths will take off!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Lovely little book - very easy to follow
Great little book - with nice little drawings - making it very easy to distinguish different types of butterflies. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Helen Prout
Beautiful Butterflies
The book was very informative, with colour photographs and plenty of detail of the butterflies.
A gift for my daughter who was delighted.
A gift for my daughter who was delighted.
Published 4 months ago by Sandra
Moths a field guide UK & Ireland.
This book is so far been excellent reference guide, easy to use and mountains of well referenced information on the life cycle of Moths in Great Britain and Ireland. Read more
Published 7 months ago by buzzmik
Great Butterfly book
Even if you are new to butterfly observing this book is easy to follow and understand. It has got some great pictures that really help too.
Published 8 months ago by Christina Macleod
A Handy Reference of British Butterlies
This was the book recommended by experts accompanying us on a NT butterfly discovery walk. The book is a concise guide to all the varieties seen in Britain, leaving out the... Read more
Published 8 months ago by S. Baldwin
Excellent little book
A handy little book for taking out and about on walks - fits nicely into my coat pocket or bag alongside my lightweight binoculars. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Strictly Nicola
butterfly book
best butterfly book i have owned! for both amateur and expert this is a great guide to the butterflies of britain. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Rob
Pocket Guide to Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland
This is a most excellent book, small enough to slip into your pocket, the illustrations and information are second to none. Read more
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