Insects: Their Natural History and
Diversity, With a Photographic Guide to Insects of Eastern North America
Stephen A. Marshall
Firefly Books Ltd.
Buffalo, NY; Richmond Hill, Ontario
2006; 720 pages
ISBN: 978-1-55297-900-6
Price: $95 ($59 Amazon), hardcover 8.5”x11”
Stephen Marshall’s stunning new book, Insects: Their Natural History
and Diversity, is a powerful, “must-have” identification tool for
anyone eager to identify or learn about (non-marine) arthropods in North
America. The size of the book (8.5” x 11”, 720 pages) is proportional to
the subject. Fitting an insect fauna for a similarly-sized region into a
bird, mammal, or flower-sized field guide format leaves most of the
lower-level diversity out. I’m sure many entomologists have picked up
smaller field guides “to the insects” that are little more than a tease
and which fail to convey one of the most striking things about the
insects—their seemingly endless diversity. Of course, Marshall’s
book is simply too large for the field! (Perhaps a future edition could
include a CD insert that one could transfer and use on a palm-sized
computer.) The author notes that despite the book’s regional focus, the
keys and photos should be useful for identifying orders and most
families worldwide.
The
strength of the work is the collection of over 4,000 color photographs
of arthropods and their accompanying well-written captions. Most of the
images are of living insects in the field, including many uncommon
species I’d wager most entomologists have never seen alive. As an
entomologist and student of insect photography, it is hard to describe
the mix of awe, amazement, and perhaps intimidation at Marshall’s
photographic and entomological accomplishment.
Although excellent field guides have been produced to some taxa of
northeastern North America, such as the caterpillars, cerambycids, and
cicindelines, that include more species of these particular groups than
Marshall’s Insects, the impressive breadth of his taxonomic
coverage would require many dozens of similar, and as yet unwritten,
guides to replicate. There is simply no book approaching the
comprehensiveness of Marshall’s. It is in a league of its own.
Following a brief introduction there are twelve chapters, filling over
500 pages, which cover the diversity of insects. Smaller orders are
grouped into single chapters and two final chapters (100+ pages) cover
non-insect arthropods and ‘Observing, Collecting and Photographing
Insects.’ Following this are well illustrated, flow-chart identification
keys to families (rarely subfamilies or superfamilies), References,
Acknowledgments, an Index of Photographs, and a General Index.
I
have purchased multiple copies of this work to ensure its availability
to my students as well as myself. These copies have seen one year of use
and, despite the somewhat awkward size and weight of the book, have
survived with minimal damage.
Each
chapter starts with a well illustrated and very informative introductory
text. Although one might wonder if the text is redundant with that in
other large entomology texts, this is not the case. These introductions
are full of information not available in other texts, although without
citations they are probably of more value to the general public and
introductory students than to advanced students or scientists. I
nonetheless found them both enjoyable and valuable to read.
The
photography is, for the most part, superb. Most subjects were
photographed with even, probably natural, lighting. Some shots, taken
either in bright sunlight or with strong flashes, show contrasts of
light and dark that obscure details and diminish the quality of the
illustration. However, even these photos are useful and despite these
minor flaws, the enormous breadth of taxonomic coverage more than
compensates. I would much rather see a few suboptimal images among 61
photos of carabids than have fewer photos. The priority here was clearly
scientific documentation first and photo artistry second (but a close
second!). Some of the images are of pinned specimens (e.g. four of the
61 carabid photos), but these are put to excellent use. For example,
Marshall provides a photo of pinned specimens of two Megacephala
species juxtaposed to illustrate a diagnostic character.
What is truly astounding about this collection of images is the amount
of natural history information they illustrate. Marshall was not only
able to photograph a stunning number of arthropods alive in the field,
he was able to capture many moments illustrative of their ecology. His
photos include images of oviposition, copulation, aggregation, larval
(and even pupal) stages, a variety of modes of locomotion, parasitism,
phoresy, and of course many instances of feeding—predation, fungivory,
herbivory, etc. Such behaviors are difficult enough to find and harder
still to capture with a camera.
In preparing this review I could find only minor points to criticize. I
sometimes had trouble with the index, which has entries sorted
alphabetically below subfamily, but subfamilies are indented and grouped
under alphabetically sorted families. This means a casual glance in the
index might see the following names in order: Hispinae, Synetinae,
Chrysopidae—the first two being indented slightly more than the last
because these are subfamilies of the Chrysomelidae. Putting the family
names in a bold font might help. The entries below subfamily are in
italics so they at least stand out, but don’t go looking for the
periodical cicada genus Magicicada under the letter M; you have
to look under the entry for the family Cicadidae. It would be simpler to
have all entries sorted alphabetically with specific epithets grouped
under the entry for a genus.
The
keys to families at the end of the book are wonderful. They are
flow-chart style, heavily illustrated, and there are keys to larvae of
some groups. Although there is a chapter filled with photos of
non-insect arthropods, there is unfortunately no corresponding key to
these taxa. I have used most of the keys and compared them with more
comprehensive keys to families. Certainly there must be something lost
in the simplification required for these keys, but I haven’t yet found
an example of a misidentification due to their use. The author states
clearly that the keys represent a compromise between ease of use and
comprehensiveness.
In sum, this book is amazing. It is one of the most frequently used in
my personal library and I expect it will remain so for decades to come.
I hope the book’s binding is as strong as it seems to be!
Derek Sikes
University of Alaska Museum
Fairbanks, AK
E-mail: ffdss@uaf.edu
American Entomology
Vol. 54, No. 1, Spring 2008
