Butterflies Of East Africa

Compact guide to 246 common, spectacular and interesting butterflies found in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Concise text, colour photographs, distribution maps.

Butterflies are among the most familiar and popular of all the insects, and butterfly watching makes an absorbing hobby. This handy, compact guide serves as an introduction to East Africa’s amazing butterfly diversity. It introduces 246 of the more common, spectacular and interesting species found in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

The result of more than 20 years of research and collaboration by international butterfly experts, this book is the first comprehensive catalogue to the butterfly fauna of any major tropical region and, as such, provides a basic research tool for any worker with an interest in African butterflies. Covering 3593 recognised species in 300 genera, it deals with about 20% of the world butterfly fauna. Included are entries for all genus-group, species-group and infra-subspecific names applicable to the Afrotropical butterflies, a total of about 14 000 names. This work has a more wide-ranging appeal than a narrow taxonomic list, a volume that will be of value not only to taxonomists but to all biologists with an interest in Africa and its butterfly fauna.

This book is an illustrated identification guide to the 870 butterfly species recorded in Kenya. All the adult butterflies are illustrated on 64 color plates which show 1,500 museum specimens especially photographed for this volume. The plates are supplemented by black-and-white drawings of earlier stages for some of the species. The text includes 11 introductory chapters on butterfly biology, ecology, and behavior in the Kenyan environment, followed by detailed accounts of the species. These describe appearance, field characteristics, Kenyan and African distribution, subspecies, habits, larval food plants, and additional information. No other book on the East African butterfly fauna approaches the depth of coverage given here. The author combines attractive visual information with scientific natural history to provide a reference work that will be welcomed by butterfly enthusiasts, entomologists, ecologists, and naturalists all over the world.