In the last four decades of the twentieth century the use of sweetpotato was diversified beyond their classification as subsistence, food security, and famine-relief crop. In developing countries they serve both as human food and for feeding livestock. In Western countries they appeal to health conscious consumers because of their nutritional aspects. The sweetpotato is very high in nutritive value, and merits wider use on this account alone. The book has 2 parts. A general one giving up-to-date information on the history, botany, cultivars, genetic engineering, propagation, diseases and pests, nutritional data and marketing; and a second part presenting data on sweetpotato growing practices in different areas of the world. The information should be useful to researchers, practitioners and crop administrators in different countries.

Volume 8 of the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera provides a list of all taxa of the bulk of the family Curculionidae and of Cryptolaryngidae reported from the biogeographical realm covered. For the genus and species-groups taxa all available names are given, and for the valid species and subspecies the distribution per country is shown, including more details for endemic taxa. Type species are listed for all genus-group names. The work is based on verification of the primary sources, and the respective references are given. Particular chapters deal with the actual impediments of taxonomy, nomenclatural and taxonomic problems, and corrections to previously published volumes of the Catalogue.