The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia

Winner of the 2005 Whitley Award for Field Guides.

This is the first complete field guide to all butterfly species on Australia’s mainland and its remote islands.

Written by one of Australia's leading lepidopterists, it is stunningly illustrated with color photographs of each of the 416 currently identified species. There is also a distribution map for each species on the Australian mainland.

It covers the five major family groups: Hesperiidae, Paplionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae, as well as the family Riodinidae, which has but a single species in Australia.

The introduction covers adult structure, classification, distribution and habitats, and life cycle and behavior. This is followed by accounts of each of the 416 species, giving common name, scientific name, and other names (if any), as well as details of behavior, habitat, status, and larval food plants. Accompanying each species is a distribution map, and photographs of the upperside and underside of both male and female specimens.

The book also contains a checklist of all species, a list of entomological contacts, a glossary, a bibliography, an index of common names and an index of scientific names.

Supplementary section Collecting and Preserving Butterflies is available as a free download (Adobe Acrobat format - 331 kb).

Features
* All 416 species photographed in colour
* Distribution map for each species on the Australian mainland
* Includes species found on Australia’s remote islands
* Complete introduction to the biology of butterflies, and their habitats
* Written by one of Australia’s leading lepidopterists

Michael F. Braby has been collecting and studying Australian butterflies for more than 35 years. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University and Chief Editor of Austral Entomology. He is particularly interested in the conservation, systematics, taxonomy, biogeography, biology and ecology of diurnal Lepidoptera and has published extensively in the field.