Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most who use this book have the same general complaint -- no color. Color, however, can be one of the most useless characteristics in identifying insects (especially if there are multiple color morphs).

Since this is not a guide which was designed to identify every insect species within a given range (which is impossible within the scope of a single tome), it does its job well...and that job is to help narrow the possibilities of identifications for each individual insect. There are specialist books for more specific (excuse the pun) identifications. This book may be used to point toward the specialist books necessary for correct identifications and should be used in that fashion.

There is a lot to be learned from Richard E. White's book, and reading the book from cover to cover is recommended for every insectophile. That's why, in spite of the inability to correctly identify even every insect in my backyard, I give this book 5/5.

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the lack of color photos or plates. I honestly read half the book when I first recieved it. I got it because I was worried that this creature I had found was a mutant or something (turned out it was a velvet ant). It does have quite a bit of information on the different animals that make up the order of insects. It does not though give detail into any peticualar family though. There are after all WAY to many insects out there to fit into just one book. Check out the other field guides for butterflies, moths, or whatever you are into. It can be a little technical for the layman (i.e. me) but will help get you started on your adventures in collecting and learning about insects.

I have used this book for years. It is great for quick and easy insect identification. Good for the entomologist as well as the layman. Few color illustrations (lots of B & W) but since insects are very rarely identified by color, this is practically irrelevant. Highly recommended.

This is a good book, however, there are 3 entries that provide incorrect sexes. In particular, the fall cankerworm. This insect is identified in the picture as a female moth, when in truth, it is the male. Females are wingless, this is why banding trees is helpful in control, since she must climb the tree to lay her eggs. The other two entries are also moths, something the author should have been aware of. The book would also benefit from better pictures, rather than illustrations. But for the most part it is a helpful guide and would recommend it next to the audoban societies guide to north american insects.

Excellent reference although I hadn't realized how MANY insects and variations of each type of insect there are. This makes identification harder.

Although this book certainly appears to be detailed and comprehensive, its lack of color photos (there's a single, small section) makes it less than useful. Want to identify that iridescent green bug? Good luck -- this won't help much. The Nat'l Audubon Society's book might be a better bet.

The guide aims to cover insects in America north of Mexico to family level. Few families are illustrated by more than a single figure of an adult and, while generally a single sex is shown, exceptions are made for some insects, for example in the color plates of damselflies. Where the sexes are very distinct (e.g. tussock moths or butterflies) it would have been helpful to show figures of both sexes. The book is predominantly one designed for identification and while it provides excellent coverage and a wonderful selection of figures, it rarely includes keys to help the novice zero on a particular family. The endpapers provide a quick and helpful guide to the principal insect orders, but once that level is reached, the reader must hunt out the descriptions of each suborder and/or superfamily to determine the appropriate group. The significant criteria that distinguish these suborders/superfamilies would be much easier to learn and compare were their descriptions put together on the same page rather than scattered through the section waiting to be discovered by searching the text or looking up the appropriate page by using the index. There is good chapter on collection methods and a brief introduction to insect structure and growth. Deficiences include the following - The book was originally published in 1970: however, the publisher has not taken the opportunity to update the original bibliography in any of the reprints. Nor have resources like Entomological organizations been listed. While the worldwide web makes it easier to access this new information, it would have been helpful to see the experts' recommendations.

There are few books that can carry the responsibility of identifying insects easily. This is one of them. More illustrations would be helpful as would more information, but the limits of a field guide size limit this. It's a sufficiently detailed book that field researchers can use it but not so scientific (read opaque) that naturalists can't use it. It would be a useful book for anyone who's identifying insects and has little formal training in entomology. It'd be nice if the authors covered arachnids, too.

This book is the most comprehensive general field guide to insects available. It has both good pictures and text that can help the amateur identify insects down to the family and occasionally down to genus and species.

This book has some really great pictures that can help the amateur identify insects down to the family and occasionally down to class.