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(More customer reviews)Butterflies: Decoding their Signs and Symbols" by Philip Howse, is as creative as it is beautiful. Dr. Howse will intrigue biologists and naturalists with his new vision of mimicry and its implications for understanding evolution. Whether it is a moth that looks like a snake, or a butterfly that has large spots on its wings giving the appearance of huge menacing eyes this book challenges the imagination and scientific understanding of its readers. But it doesn't stop there ... Howse shows how many images from Nature have found their way onto artifacts throughout history, some on priceless objects stored in the world's museums. What makes this book different from other natural history books is how Philip Howse elegantly weaves together his insights, backed by over 50 years of personal scientific study, with carefully researched historical knowledge, supported by remarkably beautiful images. This book deserves a place on every coffee table, but it also a book that must be read and which which will change the way you see things . It will delight readers of all ages.
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Butterflies: Decoding Their Signs and SymbolsA pioneering exploration of butterfly markings and how humans respond to them.
People have always marveled at the colors, patterns and designs on the wings of butterflies and moths, but there has been little attempt to decode them or to recognize any great significance in them.
In Butterflies: Decoding Their Signs & Symbols Philip Howse explains how these markings protect butterflies and moths from their principal predators, including birds, lizards and monkeys. These insectivores, he argues, detect their prey by perceiving small details of shape and color rather than the "whole picture" of the insect. These details can create an illusion that camouflages the butterfly or threatens its predator.
If humans look at the detail on a butterfly in the way that a bird sees it, surprising images reveal themselves: owls' eyes, snakes' heads, caterpillars, lizards, wasps, scorpions, birds' beaks, feathers. Howse explores how these signs and symbols, so important in the animal world, became archetypal symbols in our world. Photographs and illustrations chronicle how butterflies and their markings have appeared throughout history, whether on cave walls and in modern art or in our most important mythologies, where they were transformed into the Mother Goddesses by the ancient Greeks, the ancient Egyptians and the Aztecs.
Butterflies: Decoding Their Signs & Symbols is a fascinating illustrated study of butterflies, but it also poses provocative questions and offers conclusions that will leave readers with a new view of the natural world and how they perceive it. Naturalists and lepidopterists will find it of particular interest.
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