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A Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico
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$ 14.82
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| Retail Value |
$ 19.00 |
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$ 4.18 (22%) |
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| Item Number |
422488 |
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Item Description...
Overview
Covers over five hundred families of North American insects
Publishers Description
Detailed descriptions of insect orders, families, and many individual species are illustrated with 1,300 drawings and 142 superb color paintings. Illustrations - which use the unique Peterson Identification System to distinguish one insect from another - include size lines to show the actual length of each insect. A helpful glossary explains the technical terms of insect anatomy. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 404
Dimensions: Length: 1" Width: 4.5" Height: 7.5"
Weight: 0.85 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Apr 1, 1998
Publisher Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 0395911702
EAN 9780395911709
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Availability 16 units.
Availability accurate as of May 22, 2012 09:17.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Johnson City, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | BEST SINGLE GUIDE ON THE MARKET - READ THIS AND OTHER REVIEW BEFORE YOU PURCHASE IT. Jun 6, 2009 |
I have quite a collection of the Peterson Filed Guides and have been using them since the early 1950s; the first being his field guide to birds. As to absolute usefulness, I find these books to have been extremely consistent throughout the years. Peterson has probably done more to encourage budding naturalists since the 1930s than any other individual in our country; indeed, probably the world. With this guide he has not let us down.
First, the guide I am reviewing here is the reprint of the 1970 guide, which I believe was published around 1974 by Borror and White. I am not sure about the mention of several reviewers that there are no color prints in this edition as the one in front of me has 142 wonderfully done paintings and 1300 drawings. This little field guide covers 579 of the insect families and has at least one illustration of each of these families. The book is set up in the standard Peterson format and once you get use to it, make finding the insect you are trying to identify quite easy. It uses the trade mark "arrow system" to indicate the particular feature of the insect that make it unique to others.
Now I note that there is some disappointment for some who reviewed this work. I can understand that completely, but feel this disappointment is the product of not realizing just how broad an area that any guide to insects must cover. At present there are somewhere between 90,000 thousand and 100,000 species and subspecies of insect in North American (not counting Mexico, which is a realm unto its own), and this number keep climbing year after year as new species are discovered or change range or are introduced from afar. If it were possible to create a field guide that covered all of these insects, and covered them to the point of easy identification, the volume would be so large that it would make it impossible to carry. I for one doubt if a guide, portable or not, will ever exists. That is one of the fascinations of collecting, spotting, photographing or identifying these amazing creatures. Every time you think you have "seen it all," you are quickly proven wrong. I am certainly not an expert in this area, and I too have spent hours trying in vain to identify insects in only one small family, i.e. beetles. And trust me folks, I have really a lot of books on the subject! No one guide can fill all needs.
No, this field guide was written for the amateur who is curious about the world around him or her. It will certainly not win you a degree in entomology by reading it. What it will do though, is give you a starting point. I can think of no better single volume to give to a young person interested in the study of insects. I suspect that many of our PhDs working in this field got their start with this field guide, used it and were led to bigger and better things. That is the main value of this book in my opinion.
For those that are more interested in the study of insects, this work can act as a spring board. It will certainly point you in the right direction as far as family and species goes. I know that I can find a beetle, identify what order and family it belongs to using this guide, and then hit my larger collection of books at home, go online, or go to the nearby university library and find just what I want.
Each picture and each drawing in this work is meticulously done and the written description is actually readable for the lay person. One of the nice things about this work is that you can learn oh so much from it and actually never have to lay your eyes on a living creature. There is truly a wealth of information here for the curious.
This work includes a very nice glossary that explains, quite well I might say, the technical terms as to insect anatomy. This alone is worth the read for the interested. Latin names are used along with the common name of each insect addressed. This is extremely helpful...no, it is almost a must, if you want to do further research of a critter you have found crawling across your bedroom floor or across your forehead at night while camping. This is one of the guides that is always packed with me when I take one of my frequent trips into the bush. You can almost always stick one more book or one more dog in your truck if you really try.
Like all of the Peterson Guides, this one is well put together, tough, and easy to pack. There are also a plethora of other guides which are more family specific, i.e. beetles, moths, butterflies, etc. for those that want even more or have a more specific area of interest like me.
Bottom Line: You are NOT going to be able to find any one single guide that will identify all of the insects in North America...for that matter even in your back yard. A guide such as this simply does not exsist and probably never will. But for a good general starting point, this one simply cannot be beat.
I do highly recommend this guide.
| | | | A Field Guide to Insects Jun 2, 2008 |
| A good simple introduction to insects and a handy pocket book size, easy too carry in the field. | | |  | no phtoraphs Oct 2, 2007 |
| I was disappointed. The guide, although complete in many respects, has only black and white drawings. Also there were little in terms of interesting details about the insects, items such as folksy stories or enjoyable tidbits of knowledge. It was more of a science book for classroom. | | | | Another Well Done Peterson Guide Sep 10, 2007 |
| This book is just another in the long line of Peterson Field Guides that provides good concise information of key characteristics to help identify the myriad of families of insects. Except for a few color plates, the majority is shown in black and white, so if you are looking for a book to identify strictly on sight, this might not be the book for you. I recommed using this book in concert with the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America which lacks some of the detailed identification characteristics, but uses photographs for all of it's insects. | | |  | Very Weak on Pictures Jun 18, 2007 |
| When I purchased this book I expected a "National Audubon" type field guide with many color pictures of insects. Instead it was quit thin and only show certain insect groups in color pictures. Extremely disappointed! I guess I should have stuck with Audubon field guides but I thought Peterson guides would be even more extensive. I was wrong! I'll never doubt again. | | | Write your own review about A Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico
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