Moths of Western North America Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a book that every student, collector and photographer of western moths will need, want and cherish. It is not only a beautiful book, a testament to the capabilities of University of California Press, it is a fitting monument to the careers of two fine lepidopteran scientists who bring to this work their combined 100 years of research and teaching experience.
This is not a field guide. It is a hefty hardcover book, 8-1/2 x 11 inches, with 64 beautifully printed full-color plates. About 370 pages are devoted to text, glossary and index, with another 130 pages for plates and facing caption pages. Fifty-eight of the plates display photographs of almost 2,350 specimens, and about 2,050 species. It is remarkable that 26 of the plates are given over to micromoths of about 1,075 species. This degree of attention to the micros, among which both authors have devoted much time, is by itself a tremendous contribution to the literature. Six plates depict mainly living larvae, but also adults and elements of life cycles such as leaf mines, tents and the like.
Sprinkled throughout the text are about 250 line drawings, mainly of the genitalia of exemplar species, giving an overview of the families and subfamilies. Where appropriate the authors also draw attention to defining characters of genitalia in the text, but this is not so extensive as to make reading difficult or uninteresting to the layman. Quite to the contrary, the text is relatively free of technical jargon and the stilted language of field guides where words and space may be considered to be at a premium. The writing in this book approaches that of delightful prose. Whether you are reading beside the living room hearth, in front of a field site campfire, or in a tiny cubicle at the lab, you are in for an enjoyable read.
The authors and UCP are to be congratulated and applauded for a very fine and worthwhile book.

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Insects boast incredible diversity, and this book treats an important component of the western insect biota that has not been summarized before--moths and their plant relationships. There are about 8,000 named species of moths in our region, and although most are unnoticed by the public, many attract attention when their larvae create economic damage: eating holes in woolens, infesting stored foods, boring into apples, damaging crops and garden plants, or defoliating forests. In contrast to previous North American moth books, this volume discusses and illustrates about 25% of the species in every family, including the tiny species, making this the most comprehensive volume in its field. With this approach it provides access to microlepidoptera study for biologists as well as amateur collectors. About 2,500 species are described and illustrated, including virtually all moths of economic importance, summarizing their morphology, taxonomy, adult behavior, larval biology, and life cycles.

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