On a recent trip to the UK I purchased 3 mew books on moths that I thought
might be of interest to some on this list.
1] Waring, P and M. Townsend. 2003.
Field guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland. 432 pp. British
Wildlife Publishing.
This book differs from most moth books in that it depicts all the British
species "in their normal resting positions because the emphasis is on
identifying live moths." The moths are paintings by Richard Lewington.
There are also several coloured photos of caterpillars.
This book could serve as a model for the next NA moth book, but I would
prefer to see coloured photos of living moths rather than paintings.
2] Hooper, J. 2003.
Of moths and men. 375pp. Fourth Estate.
A "must read" for anyone interested in the controversy centering around
the peppered moth (Biston betularia) and the Oxford School of Ecological
Genetics. The author also includes research conducted by NA scientists.
3] Majerus, M.E, N. 2002.
Moths. 310pp. HarperCollins Publishers.
This book is in the New Naturalist Series and comes nearly half a century
after E.B. Ford's classic New Naturalist book "Moths".
Majerus is an ecological geneticist at Cambridge University and a lifetime
collector of moths. The author stresses that his book is neither a revision
nor an updating of Ford's classic. It is a book on the natural history of
moths, dealing with their behavoiur, ecology and evolution. It also
includes a whole chapter on melanism on moths that ties in nicely with
Hooper's book.
