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 Africais 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 Entomologist
Vol. 53, No. 3, Fall 2007