With the butterfly season pretty much having come to an end, I stumbled across this book on butterfly life cycles, which was getting very positive reviews. The book has detailed information on eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises, food plants, active periods, etc of all 59 butterfly species regularly breeding in the British Isles.
It's not an identification guide to bring with us when we go out butterflying (too big and heavy anyway). Also, we don't plan to start looking for eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises everywhere, but I bought the book more to deepen our understanding (and enjoyment!) of butterflies and their behaviour and ecology.
The book is an incredible labour of love; I can't imagine the amount of time and effort it took to collect all the information. It contains photos of every life stage of every species resident in the British Isles: early and late eggs, all caterpillar instars, early and late pupae, plus information on ecology and conservation status in the UK.
But that's not all! A companion book by the same author, covering rare migrants, extinct species and accidental introductions was published last month!
Both books were ordered here; I don't understand how they can sell them for as little as £28 and £24, respectively ....
