Bookshelf

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Beekeeping,

edited by Roger Morse and Ted Hooper. Sherborne, UK: Alphabooks. ISNB 0 906670 05 5, 432 pp. 1985.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Beekeeping brings together a surprising amount of information between one pair of covers so producing a book that will be needed by everyone who is concerned with beekeeping education or development. Its editors, who both have lifelong practical experience and are skilled teachers, are Professor R. A. Morse, Cornell University USA and Ted Hooper NDB, Writtle College of Agriculture, Essex, UK. As well as their own contributions they have obtained material from 46 specialists in apiculture and the life of honeybees and their colonies.

In addition to a series of colour plates there are (on nearly every page) well produced black and white photographs and drawings, and technical descriptions are supported by uncluttered diagrams particularly of honeybee anatomy and the hive and its constituent parts.

The succinct entries have a reasonable balance and do not leave the reader bemused by a wealth of cross references, but it would have been helpful to have had more indications of the key literature. In turning to the section on bee books readers will feel the lack of M. V. Smith’s Beekeeping in the tropics, 1960, Longman, London, UK and of the Bibliography of tropical apiculture, 1978, IBRA, London, UK. No doubt this omission can be corrected in a subsequent edition.

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia is an important book, it is different from any other currently in print, it has a world-wide appeal and will be invaluable to all who take a serious interest in beekeeping, particularly if they do not have the resources of a large apicultural library to call upon.

Karl Shower

The Encyclopaedia of Beekeeping is available from IBRA, price £18.70 including postage.