This edited book is stated to be ‘a basic primer for practitioners interested in working with butterflies’. It was developed from a series of national workshops on butterfly conservation and management held for conservation practitioners from many North American institutions and agencies, and from the viewpoint that many managers are relatively unfamiliar with butterflies and lack expertise with them. A series of nine chapters (from a collective 20 authors, many of them well-known and respected lepidopterists with extensive field experience) provide a useful and unusual compendium and insight—it is indeed rare to find a book on North American butterfly conservation in which the Monarch and Checkerspots get only casual mentions, and in which the works of many of the pioneers of the discipline in the region are not cited prominently. I found myself initially seeking a foothold in the book— largely because of the absence of a clear preface or introduction to its rationale and scope, and lack of any editorial overview to summarise the content and provide perspective. The above comments on genesis and scope, for example, are gleaned from the book’s acknowledgements and the abstract to the first full chapter. That said, the book contains much clear practical and original advice and basic information, is logically arranged, and will be welcomed by many butterfly enthusiasts as providing a modern perspective of how butterfly conservation is progressing in the United States. Each chapter is referenced independently and also includes a summary of key points discussed. The first six essays deal with general themes, the next two consider conservation of individual species, and the concluding essay assesses the major features of butterfly conservation and its differences from those of generally more familiar large vertebrates. Whilst much of the detail implicit in some European butterfly conservation studies is not yet routine in North America, the perspectives presented have very wide value, and proponents for butterfly conservation throughout the world will find much to stimulate and advance their interests. The book is declaredly parochial, but brings much hitherto difficult-to-find information to welcome wider attention, and should do much to advance a wider embracing strategy for butterfly conservation in the region. The first chapter, entitled ‘Butterfly recovery planning: determining how to contribute’ (Daniels, Magdich, Tolson), sets out clearly the basic components of butterfly conservation strategies and presents a guide to options for becoming involved, aided by a series of decision trees soliciting well-planned rational involvement based on the five limiting parameters that apply to any organisation (as funds, time, space, personnel, staff expertise). Many prospective participants will be made aware of practicalities they might not have considered fully. A chapter on roles of Zoos and Aquaria (Grow, Allard, Luke) emphasises their varied and important contributions to butterfly husbandry, conservation and education, and notes that butterfly exhibits occur at approximately 70 such institutions. The third chapter, on Butterfly monitoring (Taron, Ries), is a clear summary of sampling/inspection approaches with the assumptions, advantages, and practical and logistic limitations of each discussed. It includes an inventory of North American butterfly monitoring programmes, leading to the formation of the North American Butterfly Monitoring network, with its six major goals & Tim R. New T.New@latrobe.edu.au
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Jan 1, 2018
Jon Shepard + 2
Open Access
