This is the most comprehensive field guide to the butterflies of Europe. The magnificent color illustrations and succinct entries cover all 440 species across, and sometimes beyond, the continent--from Lapland to North Africa, from the British Isles to Portugal to Greece, from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus. Completely up-to-date, the book includes dozens of species absent in earlier guides and covers the Canary Islands, the Azores, Madeira, and the Aegean Islands, home to several butterflies found nowhere else in Europe. The entries cover taxonomic nomenclature, range, distribution, description, flight period, variation, habitat, life history--including, importantly, larval host plants--and behavior. The 104 color plates feature over 2,000 illustrations, including both genders of each species and lateral views. Distribution maps accompany nearly all entries. In this journey to the haunts of the Old World's most kaleidoscopic creatures we encounter: Swallowtails and Festoons, Orange Tips, Hairstreaks and Blues, Emperors and Tortoiseshells, Fritillaries, Ringlets, Skippers, and many other delicately winged delights. All who find butterflies beautiful will treasure this authoritative guide. Whether already afield or still at home dreaming of that trip to Europe, they will feel what the great literary lepidopterist, Vladimir Nabokov, did as a schoolboy in Russia, when, as he once recounted, he so yearned to identify one of those "delicate little creatures that cling in the daytime to speckled surfaces, with which their flat wings and turned-up abdomens blend." Comprehensive field guide to the 440 butterflies found in Europe Each species fully illustrated with paintings of the male, female, and, where appropriate, all major forms Over 2,000 color illustrations and more than 400 distribution maps--one for every widespread species Text covering taxonomic nomenclature, distribution, flight period, variation, habitat, behavior, life cycle, food plants, and conservation All information researched from original sources

An authoritative photographic guide to the butterflies of Europe. Packed with beautiful photography and thoroughly updated throughout, this is the definitive guide to all 472 species of European butterflies with additional information on another 64 species found in North Africa and south and west Turkey. Detailed text and clear photographs – including views of both the upperwing and underwing where possible – allow identification of adult butterflies in the field. There is also useful information on their relative size, similar species, habitat, lifestyle and larval host plants, accompanied by accurate range maps which have been updated for this new edition. The result of collaboration between many European butterfly experts and photographers, and compiled by a Finnish team, this thoroughly updated and comprehensive guide represents the last word in butterfly identification.

On title page: Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife & Natural Habitats (Bern Convention). About endangered species

Due to the attractiveness of butterflies, and their usefulness as model systems for biological questions, there has been a considerable amount of material written on butterfly biology, largely in Europe. This book synthesizes all relevant and recent knowledge in the field, which is a must for those making use of this taxonomic group as a model system. It is divided into five major parts which deal with habitat use, population ecology and genetics, evolutionary ecology, distribution and phylogeny, and global change and conservation. There are growing numbers of scientific projects and networks in Europe in which the use of butterflies as tools and targets for conservation is central, and application of knowledge is closely related to European cultural landscapes. However, the chapters can also be applied to a wide geographic scope. Written by an international team of experts, this timely book is suitable for students, researchers and enthusiasts.