Revolution coming in Butterfly Identification!!!
Mike Quinn
mqnature at hiline.net
Sat Nov 21 12:44:10 EST 1998
Michael, I believe the coming Eastern North American Guide (1999) will be a
significant improvement over even the northeastern guide to butterflies
(1993). The northeastern guide is good but the Eastern Guide is something
different, it _really_ hits the nail on the head. Its east west cut-off in
Texas is between Houston and Corpus Christi so none of the Rio Grande
Valley specialties will be included. (There are about 70 species found only
in the 4 southmost counties of south Texas, or almost 10% of the entire
North American butterfly fauna.) Mike
>We in the Northeast have already benefitted from a Glassberg volume on
>the butterflies of the northeast, that has been with us for nearly a
>decade. It really made field identification possible for most species,
>although there are still some identification challenges that photographs
>can't completely resolve. Although there will inevitably be
>misidentifications (just as there are with birds), the superior
>illustrations in that book really made a big difference for us. Of
>course the Pyle and new Opler books are valuable, but what I found most
>useful about the Northeast book was its rather tight regional approach.
> No reason for me to fret about prairie species or Florida specialties,
>when I'm in New Jersey. I'm afraid that the publisher has lost one of
>the greatest advantages of the Glassberg regional approach by insisting
>on broader coverage, hence broader market.
>
>M Gochfeld
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