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Title: An Obsession With Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect by Sharman Apt Russell ISBN: 0-7382-0699-7 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Full of Color, Full of Life
Comment: We generally do not like insects; when they come to our notice, it is usually because they irritate, pain, or impoverish us. But everyone loves butterflies, and everyone has done so since early childhood. They are fascinating natural specimens, and their colors fill us with admiration and wonder. It isn't surprising that they have caused obsessions in many people in many centuries. In _An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect_ (Perseus Publishing), Sharman Apt Russell has packed some taxonomy of butterflies, and also biology, but also a history about the obsessed and a chronicle of butterfly culture. Russell reveals that she is obsessed herself, but her obsession translates into an enthusiastic and poetic look at science and history that is full of life and color.
Anyone who reads this book will come away with admiration for the cleverness of tactics which evolution has given to butterflies. Caterpillars are especially vulnerable in a world that is out to get them; fungi, pathogens, wasps, ants, birds, and lizards all find caterpillars a tasty meal (oh, and humans, too). The Western Tiger Swallowtail's caterpillar is only a speck when it comes out of the egg, but as it grows and molts, it takes on the appearance of a bird's droppings. No one is interested in bird droppings. Caterpillars have enemies, but friends, too; some have developed a symbiosis with ant colonies. The butterflies get protection and nourishment, and the ants get honeydew secreted by the caterpillars. The color of butterflies may be enchanting to us, but like all the other characteristics of the insect, it is merely an evolutionary tool. Often males are more brightly colored than females; they are attracted to the drab coloration of females and repelled by the bright males, so that they spend their time with the right group to get the genes into the next generation. Darker colors help high altitude butterflies keep warm. Eyespots scare birds. Bright colors warn of unpalatability. Edible butterflies mimic toxic ones, and toxic ones mimic each other, just to make sure the birds got a clear message.
It isn't just butterflies that are examined in this book; humans are pinned here, too. Lady Glanville sent cases and cases of butterfly specimens in the early eighteenth century for the naturalists to record and keep. When she died, the will was voided because she was thought to be insane over butterflies; she would beat the hedges for "a parcel of wormes," neighbors reported. One entomologist admitted, "None but those deprived of their Senses would go in Pursuit of butterflyes." Among those similarly deprived of their senses was Lord Walter Rothschild, who hired an army of professional species-stalkers to collect butterflies from all over the world. He donated over two million specimens to the British museum. His niece Miriam was famous for producing a six-volume inventory of her father's flea collection, but she demonstrated how Monarch caterpillars become toxic by storing the poisons of milkweed plants. She wrote that butterflies are like dream flowers "...which have broken loose from their stalks and escaped into the sunshine. Air and angels." We have pinned these angels, collected them, categorized them, and studied them for hundreds of years, and they are still full of surprises. Russell's book, too, is full of surprises; did you know that the male Tiger Swallowtail has eyes on his genitals to guide them into just the right slot on the female? Readers of Russell's elegant and poetic (yet fact-filled) book will have a new appreciation for the insect that humans love.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Song of a Book
Comment: This little song of a book makes for a lively and brief read. From caterpillars to moths to butterflies, Russell flits from subject to subject poetically. Her book focuses on the genetic mission of the butterfly, their tricks of adaptation and mimickry. Makes me want to be a butterfly (if for no other reason than to be able to secrete a chastity belt onto my wife to keep her from being promiscuous.) The occasional second-person narrative works surprisingly well.
Most importantly, Russell does not waste much ink discussing issues of habitat destruction or species extinction. We know about that already. Instead she focuses on the magic, the color, and the life. The lepidopterists out there might quibble with the science (the author is more of an MFA than a PhD) but I odn't know about that. It is getting on evening and I am going to grab a six-pack and my camera and go out in the hills looking for butterflies.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Lyrical Exploration
Comment: This lyrical exploration of butterflies has an amazing range. The author's depth and breadth of research is equaled by her ability to sweep us into a very special world, the world of those who are obsessed with butterflies. Butterfly biology and ecology, the focus of this book, are clearly presented in beautiful language. The details of butterfly anatomy and behavior are sometimes bizarre and always interesting.
The author adds depth to the book by including the human view of butterflies. Her profiles of contemporary and historical scientists and ordinary people who have been obsessed with butterflies are riveting. (Some of the people are as peculiar as the insects!) She includes the incredible variety of meanings that societies have assigned to butterflies and moths. I had a hard time putting down this unusual blend of science, biography and mythology.
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Title: Butterflies of North America (Kaufman Focus Guides) by Jim P. Brock, Kenn Kaufman ISBN: 0618153128 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers by Sharman Apt Russell ISBN: 0738206695 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Discovering Moths: Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard by John Himmelman ISBN: 0892725281 Publisher: Down East Books Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Secrets of Wildflowers: A Delightful Feast of Little-Known Facts, Folklore, and History by Jack Sanders ISBN: 1585746681 Publisher: The Lyons Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Traveling Light: A Photographer's Journey by Deborah Dewit-Marchant, Deborah Dewit Marchant ISBN: 0971158339 Publisher: Impassio Pr Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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