New book --

[Zdravko Kolev]

Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca (Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX) wrote in message news:<6506849CAEBBE24E913A22806016E406F61F60 at blaze.bcsc.gov.bc.ca>...

> Just got my copy of a new book on Russian butterflies:
> Gorbunov, P.Y. 2001. The Butterflies of Russia: classification, genitalia,
> keys for identification. Ekaterinburg: <<Thesis>>. 320 pp.
> It is distributed by Pensoft publishers but I do not have their website
> address handy.  

The address is www.pensoft.net, and here's what they say about the
book in question:

The butterflies of Russia (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea and
Papilionoidea): classification, genitalia, keys for identification
Gorbunov, PY
2001. 300x220, 41+13 plates, In English.
Hdb [hbk], 320pp. Price USD 65.
Notes:
The butterfly fauna of Russia is completely reviewed, with keys
compiled for the 472 species in 140 genera occurring in the country.
Surveys of their taxonomy and brief remarks on distribution and
ecology are provided. The male genitalia and some other structures of
all these taxa are depicted in more than 700 figures, 472 distribution
maps, and 119 colour photos of the butterflies are of a very high
quality.

> It has a lot of extremely interesting information in it.
> The author is of course within his rights to hold and publish whatever
> taxonomic interpretations that he choses but I was shocked by the degree of
> lumping at both the genus and species levels.  This degree of lumping makes
> even our 'lumpiest' North American lumpers look like rabid splitters in
> comparison :-) I repeat, it appears to be a good book despite my views on
> many of the taxonomic interpretations.

Norbert, being very interested in the butterflies of the said region,
I would like to hear some examples of such extreme lumping - that'll
keep me going until I get my hands on a copy of my own :). I have to
say that 472 spp. (see above quote) does sound a bit too small a
number for a territory as large as Russia's. On the other hand, an
earlier book co-written by the same author (Korshunov, Y.P. &
Gorbunov, P.Y., 1995.[The Butterflies (Rhopalocera) of the Asian part
of Russia], published by the Ural University, 202 pp., in Russian)
lists 421 spp. for the part of Russia east of the Ural Mts. This makes
the number of 472 spp. (which  obviously also includes the species of
European Russia, including those of the steppes between the Black and
Caspian Seas and the northern side of the Caucasus) sound more or less
plausible - and, in my opinion, lumping is the _last_ thing that book
can be accused of! :)))

Greetings,

Zdravko Kolev

 
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