Britain’s Butterflies 2nd Edition

he might have imagined.

The first edition sold out earlier this year, nine years since its publication. WILDGuides sensibly recruited a real butterfly pundit to revise it, which is why the name of David Newland appears on the cover in rather bigger type than my name on the second edition, which has been fully revised and updated. If you read through it carefully, you will discover a sentence at the back that reads, “ we had the tremendous advantage of being able to build on David Tomlinson’s excellent text from the original book” . Thanks, chaps. The new edition is a terrific improvement over the old, with more pages, more pictures and more general information. I can honestly say that I think it’s the best photographic guide there is, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’m really quite flattered that my name still appears on the cover. As for the Black Hairstreak – I went this year to Glapthorn Cow Pastures near Oundle to see it. If I were reviving the text, I would add that it is possibly Britain’s most boring butterfly, as well as one of its rarest. The two individuals I saw never moved in over an hour. The text of the second edition still uses the words I used in the first: highly elusive and secretive. Boring isn’t a word you can use in a butterfly book, however much you want to.

David Newland, Robert Still, David Tomlinson & Andy Swash WILDGuides 2010

A review by Rob Parker

Many Suffolk Argus readers already own a copy of the original 2002 WILDGuides by David Tomlinson, himself a member of our Branch of Butterfly Conservation. I cherish mine because its pictorial presentation is different to any other butterfly book, each species being illustrated on one page of photographs blended with Rob Still’s artful backgrounds. This allows images of male & female, upperside and underside, egg, caterpillar and chrysalis to be shown together. Some people love it, others hate the artificial nature of the creation. The 2002 edition sold out, with a donation to Butterfly Conservation made on every sale, and now WildGuides have created a Second Edition. I was surprised at the number of changes incorporated into the volume, making it very nearly a different book. The page count jumps from 192 to 224 pages, and a good deal of fresh material has been incorporated – even more than you would expect, as the size of the typeface has been reduced to squeeze in extra text and images. Most of the photographs are new, and the new author, David Newland

himself, took many. His expertise includes authorship of WILDGuides‘ Discover Butterflies in Britain, and the extra content includes some nice habitat photography as well as a table showing where to go to find particular species. Much of David’s original text is retained, and updated where necessary. The photography has been rearranged, separating the images in a more conventional way, and curiously, dropping the images of egg, larva and pupa from the main plate. These early stages were always to be found at the back of the book in the original version, but now that is the only place to find them. The space thus saved is used for photos of typical habitat for each species. The same basic pattern for the species descriptions has otherwise been retained, featuring updated distribution maps, the cartwheel life-cycle calendar and some additional information on Biodiversity Action Plan/Red Data Book status.

The preliminary pages have been expanded to contain more information on biology and life-cycle, where to look for butterflies, and a nice spread on forms and aberrations has been added. Another worthwhile addition is the section on Conservation and legislation – both European and domestic. Towards the back of the book, several tables of species lists, butterfly food sources and caterpillar foodplants have been expanded to include (for example) Black-veined White and Geranium Bronze. This is a step towards comprehensive cover which some might argue is inappropriate in a compact book for an amateur readership, but who knows? A little more global warming and we might find either species coming to Suffolk!

This trend away from simplicity is one of the features which leave me feeling that I preferred the original. Another is the loss of a number of very pretty full-page pictures –sacrificed in order to squeeze in more content. But my final grouse is more practical. The new edition is bound with a simple glued spine, and refuses to stay open at the chosen page. The same feature means that trying to read the distribution maps (on the right hand side of the left pages) is difficult because they get lost in the fold. The original version drops open nicely, of course.

One good feature carried forward, is the involvement of Butterfly Conservation, both as a contributor and a beneficiary. The Second Edition is available in bookshops for £17.95, a slice of which will go to Butterfly Conservation.

Small Copper by Beryl Johnson