Robert Biedermann and Rolf Niedringhaus
Wissenschaftlich Akademischer Buchvertrieb–Fründ, Scheeßel, Germany
2009; iv + 409 pp.
ISBN 978-3-00-023535-1
Price: £93.00 (hardcover)

Fotoatlas der Zikaden Deutschlands (Photographic Atlas of the Planthoppers and Leafhoppers of Germany)
Gernot Kunz, Herbert Nickel, and Rolf Niedringhaus
Wissenschaftlich Akademischer Buchvertrieb–Fründ, Scheeßel, Germany
2011; 293 pp.
ISBN 978-3-939202-02-8
Price: £62.00 (hardcover)

This is a review of two books that comprise one magnificent whole.  The Plant- and Leafhoppers of Germany: Identification Key to all Species by Biedermann and Niedringhaus is an English translation of Die Zikaden Deutschlands: Bestimmungstafeln für alle Arten (Biedermann & Niedringhaus, 2004).  Fotoatlas der Zikaden Deutschlands by Kunz, Nickel, and Niedringhaus is a bilingual German/English production.  The two works have been ingeniously printed to complement one another, page by page, one above the other. 

The Plant- and Leafhoppers of Germany is a large (22 × 30 cm) technical volume aimed at scientists, agronomists, conservationists, and serious naturalists.  It contains detailed identifying features of all 619 species of Auchenorrhyncha (planthoppers, cicadas, spittlebugs, treehoppers, and leafhoppers) known in Germany at the time of publication (12 families, 223 genera).  The species are arranged by taxon, with the detailed information for each species set in vertical columns, three to a page.  Each column is headed by a black-and-white habitus line drawing of the species, followed by line drawings illustrating key morphological features, always including genitalia and sometimes supplemented with illustrations of details of head, wing, or leg morphology.  The attention to detail is exquisite, with numerous careful notations of key distinctions that separate similar species.  Each column also includes a full binomial with author and date, the German species name, the timing of seasonal occurrence of adults, the stage of hibernation (egg, nymph, or adult), distribution list by German state, and brief citations to literature relevant for identification.  In addition, the volume contains an introduction for non-specialists, a dichotomous identification key to all 619 species, a table showing the conservation status of each species by state, acknowledgment of no fewer than 96 individual sponsors who financially supported the effort, and “habitus” photos and “species information” for the authors and five others who assisted in production of the work.

The second and more recent production in this duo, the Fotoatlas der Zikaden Deutschlands, is exactly half the size of the first (22 × 15 cm), with a parallel format: all 619 German Auchenorrhyncha species are laid out in columns, three per page. Here is where the genius of this pair of volumes from the same publisher becomes fully apparent: the core species listings match, page by page.  Starting on p. 18, the pages of the Fotoatlas have a dual numbering system, with the primary page number followed by a page reference to The Plant- and Leafhoppers of Germany in parenthesis.  If you open the Fotoatlas to page 72 (168) and lay it above page 168 of The Plant- and Leafhoppers of Germany, you have before you three continuous species columns devoted to three striking red and black species of the spittlebug genus Cercopis.  Running from top to bottom, each species column now has, preceding the elements noted in The Plant- and Leafhoppers of Germany, beautiful color photographs of living specimens, a brief description of species ecology (in German only), a color code indicating ease of identification (green identifiable by eye, yellow requiring magnification, red requiring dissection of genitalia), and a distribution map by German state.  The color photography, almost all by lead author Gernot Kunz, is superb.  In addition, the Fotoatlas has a 16-page German/English bilingual introduction aimed at promoting these insects to a popular audience and a lovely set of small photographs of the authors at work in the field.
 

Together these volumes constitute an encyclopedic fauna, an excellent field guide, a work of art, and an indispensible resource for anyone with an interest in the Auchenorrhyncha of Europe.  They will also be of direct interest to workers in other countries.  For example, five of the 17 species of spittlebugs listed have been introduced into North America.  For our numerous introduced species, the illustrations will work as well here as in Europe, although the keys will not.  Lastly, both books have charming endplates, front and back, with cartoons (captions in English) lightly mocking the contents.
 

These works are a labor of love, the result of prodigious effort to compile information from a scattered literature, to arrange it systematically, and to track down and photograph hundreds of living specimens.  The authors, working on a shoestring, have set a standard that will be hard to meet, let alone surpass.  This is probably the finest and most complete work of its kind that will be produced in traditional printed format.  To go beyond will require harnessing the full powers of the Internet for interactive keys and the flexibility to incorporate diverse media with limitless content. 

I recommend both works, together, to all with interests in the Auchenorrhyncha, and to every library that values comprehensive faunal works.  I recommend the Fotoatlas to anyone who loves insects in their endless variety.  Neither volume is available from a North American source, but both are available by mail through Pemberley Books (www.pembooks.demon.co.uk), the source of the quoted prices.  A supplementary volume, formatted congruently and covering over 400 species in the nymphal stage, is in preparation.

Reference Cited
Biedermann, R. and Niedringhaus, R. 2004. Die Zikaden Deutschlands – Bestimmungstafeln für alle Arten. Wissenschaftlich Akademischer Buchvertrieb – Fründ, Scheeßel, Germany.

Vinton Thompson
Metropolitan College of New York
& Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
New York, NY
E-mail: vthompson@mcny.edu

American Entomologist
Vol. 57, No.3, Fall 2011