About the Author:
David Carter is an entomologist at the Natural History Museum, London, where he has worked for nearly 40 years specializing in Lepidoptera. At the museum, he has also managed part of the vast National Collection of World Insects. His many books on the subject include the Observer's Book of Caterpillars, Butterflies and Moths in Britain and Europe, The Photographic Guide to Identifying Butterflies, and the Collins Field Guide to Caterpillars of Britain and Europe. He has also produced technical manuals such as Pest Lepidoptera of Europe and Care and Conservation of Natural History Collections, as well as many scientific papers. David lives with his wife Brenda in Surrey, England. They have four grown-up children.
From Library Journal:
With crisp illustrations and graphic presentations characteristic of Dorling Kindersley book design, these identification guides differ somewhat from other standard field guides by using a narrowing-down process that moves through several stages to identify specimens based upon such observable characteristics as shape, color, range, and so forth. Each book opens with a short section on how to collect and classify specimens. These chapters review tools, discuss collecting "ethics," and describe procedures for documenting a collection. The bulk of each handbook consists of illustrated entries summarizing facts about the particular specimen. For minerals and rocks, entries list facts such as composition, group type, descriptions of how the material is formed, chemical or physical composition, and how the material's hardness or chemistry can be tested. The shell handbook identifies the organism by family and species, indicates habitat and geographic distribution, and gives typical dimension. Moths and butterflies are identified by family and species, habitat, time of day when usually in flight, and typical size. Each entry contains a full-color illustration. Butterflies and Moths occasionally offers pictures of both male and female when the species show significant differences in markings between sexes. Public libraries should find that these handsome volumes are worth adding to their collections of field identification guides. They may even want to purchase two sets: the hardcover for their reference collection and the flexibound for their circulating collection.-- Laurie Tynan, Montgomery Cty.
Norristown P.L., Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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