Russian butterflies: two book or not to book? :-)

[kolev at mappi.helsinki.fi]

Hi Anton,

Thank you for the comments. Mine were not intended to doubt the expertise of 
the author in any way. I was merely pointing out the components which formally 
contribute to the price, which of course do not go hand in hand with quality or 
scientific/practical value. You will agree that there are many examples of 
gorgeous books on butterflies that cost fortunes, and in some cases have great 
effort invested in them, but are still of little scientific value. Of course, 
not knowing the behind-the-scenes story and having only the booksellers' info 
to go by, it would be impossible for me or anyone else to guess just how much 
of an effort has been put into Gorbunov's book. But what you wrote certainly 
sounds reassuring. Furthermore, in 1995 I met P. Gorbunov here at the 
Zoological Museum in Helsinki, and got to see myself that he is indeed a first-
class expert on Siberian butterflies. 

Btw, that was just after he had published his joint book with Korshunov (the 
one you mention below), of which he gave me his last copy (I was lucky to be 
around then ;) ). I must say that even without illustrations the book is a 
great identification aid. My copy was indispensible to me during our 
workgroup's expedition to Buryatia in 1998; in fact, it still has copious 
amounts of dust from the Buryatian steppe between its pages :). Among other 
things it helped me identify a strange Aricia agestis- looking lycaenid caught 
by myself. It proved to be a male Plebeius chinensis - second known specimen 
from Buryatia, according to the book.

> Zdravko - Indeed, your consideration about what we can expect from the
> books by Tuzov and Gorbunov are 100% correct. But...:
> 1. It is not so correct speaking that Gorbunov's book had been written
> by
> the only person. In 1995, P.Gorbunov published a trial version in
> Russian (Korshunov, Gorbunov. 1995. The Butterflies of Asian Part of
> Russia. Ural University Press, Ekaterinburg). This book induced rather
> controversial opinions and Gorbunov received a couple of comments,
> arguments and suggestions of numerous amateur and professional
> entomologists. After the analysis of these comments, he produced the
> book issued in 2001. Also, this book was initially planned as rather
> cheap, then those who advised for the corrections did not wish to
> share the authorship and copyright ;).


> 2. This book is the only key that may be used for Russian butterfly
> identification, while it is still not clear for me what is the purpose
> of Tuzov's book rather than big, expensive, and full-color brief
> encyclopedia. Since you like to identify the butterflies you must
> use Gorbunov's book, while if you need an expensive monument on your
> book shelf you need Tuzov's one. I do not like to say that Tuzov's
> team are bad experts because I know that they're excellent, but I
> guess that they did not agree about the basic idea of the book. I
> looked through Tuzov's book for many times and never desired to buy
> and use it. :(

I agree: the best description of Tuzov et al. is perhaps "an illustrated 
catalog", as the text for each species is regrettably telegraphic. Reliable 
identification is not something you can really use it for. I also find the lack 
of distribution maps puzzling in a book of this scope and price range. Not that 
I would mind having a great-looking book like that on my bookshelf, though :) . 
But the price, the price... <(((   So I guess I'll go for Gorbunov's book - 
anyway, Christmas is coming, and I was just wondering what present to buy 
myself.

Greetings,

Zdravko


 
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