Tropical Butterflies

[Michael Gochfeld]

There is a scattered literature on butterflies of the Neotropics with 
more elaborate books on African, Asian and New Guinean butterflies.  

For example, the recent volumes by Michael Parsons THE BUTTERFLIES OF 
PAPUA NEW GUINEA and by Torben Larsen THE BUTTERFLIES OF KENYA are 
valuable sources. 

For the Neotropics see the two volumes by Philip DeVries on Costa Rican 
butterflies. 

Dan Janzen edited COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY (Univ Chicago Press, 1983) 
which has chapters on butterflies. 

Hamilton Tyler, Keith Brown and Kent Wilson published SWALLOWTAIL 
BUTTERFLIES OF THE AMERICAS (Scientific Publishers 1994) which has a lot 
of information on neotropical Swallowtails. 

The multivolume work by Bernard D'Abrera BUTTERFLIES OF THE NEOTROPICAL 
REGION is mainly illustrations with brief range and systematics 
information. 

David Owen's TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES (Clarendon Press, 1971) has is mainly 
about African butterflies, but includes experimental studies on 
Neotropical species as well. 

There are also many technical papers by authors such as Keith Brown and 
others which will be scattered through the journals. 

But, what is apparent is the general lack of attention to butterflies of 
South America (for example, Andrew Pullin's ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF 
BUTTERFLIES includes a section on global perspectives with chapters on 
Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia, but nothing on the 
Neotropics. 

Mike Gochfeld