Butterflies of West Africa (Two Volume Set)
Torben B. Larsen
Apollo Books; Stenstrup, Denmark
2005; (Vol. 1, 595 pp.; Vol. 2, 270 pp.)
ISBN 87-88757- 43-9
Price: $229.00 (Cloth)
There were many times during my tenure as a Peace
Corps volunteer in the mid-1970’s in the small West African county of
Benin that I wished for a reference source that provided the information
found in this wonderful addition to literature on the butterfly fauna of
Africa. This two-volume set presents a complete and thorough treatment
of the butterflies of West Africa. The work supplants Boorman’s
unfinished series on Nigerian butterflies and his West African Nature
Series Handbook of West African Butterflies and Moths as the best
available reference for fauna of that area.
The color plates and text material are separately
bound, thus facilitating the reader’s reference to illustrations while
perusing the species accounts. The color figures are of excellent
quality and the author provides an account of their production. There
are 125 color plates figuring 1478 species and subspecies, each with a
numerical reference corresponding to the order of appearance in the text
volume. A useful index to the plates appears in the front of both
volumes. Text material for new species and subspecies described in this
work appears separately in an appendix and color figures for most of
these are provided in a final dedicated plate.
Textual material is arranged in two parts: an introductory section
and a taxonomic section with two appendices. The Introduction provides
historical background, accounts by country of previously published
literature and early collecting efforts, biogeographical and ecological
information, appraisal of the threat of extinction due to habitat loss,
and a poignant appeal for conservation efforts that will preserve the
few remaining West African forest fragments on which many species depend
for their existence. The taxonomic portion of the book begins with a
description of how each species treatment is organized and provides a
glossary and gazetteer of terms and location in the text. Each species
account includes a description of traits for identification, subspecies
information, distribution and habits, and early stages when known.
Naming authority and date are given for genera, species, and
subspecies. The text concludes with a list of references and an Index
of Scientific Names by species and genera, providing numerical
references for location within the text body.
Butterflies of West Africa is a well-done and authoritative work that will
be an essential reference source for the study of African butterflies by
the scientific community and the serious amateur. One would also hope
and expect that awareness of the information in these volumes will
provide motivation to authorities and governments and the necessary
impetus to ensure the conservation of the remaining habitats of
butterflies and other wildlife with which they share limited and highly
vulnerable natural resources.
M. M. Ellsbury
North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory
USDA, ARS, Brookings, SD
E-mail: Michael.Ellsbury@ars.usda.gov
American Entomology
Vol. 53, No. 3, Fall 2007
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