We’ve been searching high and low for new titles to add to our collection of books, and now have in stock a range of new and classic texts on butterflies, with a particular focus on Australian species.
Here are a selection of the new titles.
Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden, by Densey Clyne.
This book is for those people who want to see more butterflies fluttering into their backyards. The life cycle of 32 common Australian butterflies is featured here, together with the names of the plants on which they like to feed. There are practical ways of turning any garden, large or small, formal or informal, country or suburban, into a butterfly garden. By carefully planning your planting, you can persuade these delightful creatures to take up residence with you. This edition has been fully revised and updated, including new species and distribution maps. Stunning photographs will help you identify not only the butterflies themselves but also the caterpillars and sometimes even their eggs and pupae.
$24.60 plus GST.
All About Butterflies of Australia, by Garry Sankowsky
This new title investigates the always-popular subject of Australian butterflies. Early chapters explore the lifecycle of these majestic insects, with stunning images showing the progression from egg through caterpillar and chrysalis stages to adult butterfly. It also covers subjects such as defence mechanisms (camouflage, mimicry, etc), feeding and introduced species. A large section of the book includes identification spreads on key species and families of Australian butterflies. Many of the country’s most eye-catching species are covered, including White Nymph, Common Jezabel, Ulysses Butterfly and the gigantic Cairns Birdwing. For many species, all stages of the lifecycle are illustrated, with images of eggs, caterpillars at various stages of development, and chrysalises, together with male and female butterflies where they differ significantly in appearance.
$29.99 plus GST.
A Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia: Their Life Histories and Larval Host Plants, by Garry Sankowsky and Geoff Walker
A comprehensive guide to the country’s butterflies covering everything from the eye-catching Common Jezabel and Ulysses Butterfly to the gigantic Cairns Birdwing, to the more cryptic Blues and Skippers. The key features that separate this book from all other butterfly field guides are first that all the images are of live butterflies (compared with other guides, which often use specimens), and second that there are large numbers of images documenting the different life stages (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, etc), plus images of male and female butterflies where they differ significantly in appearance, and also pictures of host plants, which are often an important factor in locating the butterflies.
On average each of the 350+ butterfly species included have one page of coverage, although some of the larger and more well-known species have up to three pages and some of the smaller species are set at two or three species to a page. There is a distribution map for each species.
$40.90 plus GST.