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Lacking fossils, Dennis has to use paleoclimatic reconstructio as and knowledge of the climatic adaptations of extant species to try to reconstruct butterfly paleofaunas. This is more or less the inverse of what ecohistory data producers do, and it has no obvious reality checks.
In 1994 Scott Elias published Quaternary Insects and Their Environments (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 284 pp.; reviewed by B. Drummond in News Lepid. Soc. 1994:77). There is almost nothing about butterflies in it, but it should be read by everyone who reads the Dennis books. The mountains of paleocoleopterological data give us a fine lesson in humility. (The only pretenders to truth who fare worse than ecohisto-rians and paleoecologists are vicariance biogeographers.) The biggest problem turns out to be not changing climatic adaptation by morphospecies but vagility beyond our wildest dreams. An endemic Sicilian beetle with nothing at all to suggest it had ever been anywhere but Sicily turns out to have been in Britain during a warm interglacial. A related beetle now confined to the Tibetan Plateau was in Britain during a periglacial stage. And so on. How can we retrodict faunas when we cannot define the pool of potentially available players? Similarly, how can we hope to predict future faunas? The lack of fossils makes butterfly workers dependent on a handful of bizarre relicts to remind us how feeble our imaginations are. The fact that Vanessa indica, a patent relict in the Canary Islands and Madeira, was rationalized away as a recent introduction in commerce (Leestmans 1978, Linneana Belgica 7:130-156; Shapiro 1992, Entomologist 111:10-21) is a case in point.
Butterflies and Climate Change is a well-produced book. It is nearly free of typographical errors; I noted five plus a serious lapsus calami (Colias for Colotis on p. 207). The text is very dense and cannot be read casually. The bibliography is huge—some 1100 entries—and eclectic, but in some ways unsatisfying; hardly any non-English-language works are cited, and it is surprisingly light on paleoentomology (three Coope papers, no Kenward) and on the conceptual framework of paleoenvironmental reconstruction. On the other hand, it cites very recent theoretical papers in ecology and, as noted above, could even be used as a short text in butterfly biology in generai. The fact is that once one begins doing a work like this, the limits to one's coverage eventually become arbitrary and highly personal. Had I written this book I would have a somewhat different, but no "better," set of " in" and "out" topics and citations.
I have only one public complaint about interpretation: on page 169 Dennis seems content to accept Shields' claim that all the butterfly families were already in existence in the Mesozoic. This may be true, but there are no fossils to support such a claim. It is strictly a backward extrapolation of evolutionary rates. But does anyone think rates of adaptive evolution are constant in geologic time?
Dennis is to be congratulated for an important achievement, even if I doubt the British fauna will behave predictably. It was G. K. Chesterton who described (in Napoleon of Netting Hill) the game of "Cheat the Prophet," in which the young people listen respectfully to the predictions of the sages, wait until the sages die, and then do something different. Perhaps British lepidopterists will need updated versions of Torben Larsen's Mid-East or tropical African butterfly books to identify the fauna of gardens in South Kensington!
One final observation: modern biochemical-genetic techniques ("phylogeography" or "genography") as applied to historical biogeography are rapidly rendering work of this sort obsolete. Arm-wavers like Dennis and me will have to go molecular or join an increasing number of butterfly species in oblivion.
ARTHUR M. SHAPIRO, Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616.
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 50(2), 1996, 161-166
Butterflies Through Binoculars: A field Guide to Butterflies of the Boston-New YORK-WASHINGTON REGION, by Jeffrey Glassberg. 1993. (Forward by Edward O.
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Wilson, Preface by Robert K. Robbins.) Oxford University Press. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY. 160 pages, 300 color photographs in 40 plates. Soft cover, 14 X 21 cm, ISBN 0-19-507983-3, $19.95.
A few years ago Jeff Glassberg called to tell me that he and some others were starting a new organization to be called the North American Butterfly Association, to be devoted to butterfly watching and appreciation. As a twenty-year proponent of this underrated activity, I was pleased to hear it. He went on to inform me that the group would be undertaking a new list of common names for American butterflies, and asked if I would be willing to sit on the committee. Since I had initiated the joint Xerces Society-Lepi-dopterists' Society Common Names Committee in 1980, and took part in the arduous and contentious task of constructing a synonymy and list of such names, and since The Common Names of North American Butterflies had only recently been published (1992) by Xerces and the Smithsonian Institution, under Jackie Millers inspired leadership and editing (see review by R. R. White in/. Lepid. Soc. 46:310-311), I replied that I would be happy to help the new group in any other way, but that there were several tall buildings I would rather leap off than to be on another common names committee.
In spite of what I considered a monumental redundancy, NAB A has indeed come about and has begun publishing the impressive magazine American Butterflies, co-sponsoring and conducting the Xerces Fourth of July Butterfly Counts, and promoting butterfly awareness. For this, Glassberg is to be congratulated. He also deserves praise for his new book, a manifesto of the butterfly watchers' creed and a guide to doing it in the northeastern states. Butterflies Through Binoculars takes this delightful avocation to a new level.
The cover copy of the book says, "while traditional guides cater to the collector, offering drawings of captured and mounted insects, this book provides photographs of living butterflies in their natural poses and in the correct size relationship i:o other species, making identification quick and easy." Other advertisements for the book have actually stated that this is the first book to do so. That, of course, is wrong. Areta A. Saunders used photographs of live butterflies as long ago as 1932, in her Butterflies of the Allegheny State Park. My Watching Washington Butterflies (Seattle Audubon Society, 1974) and Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies (Knopf, 1981) both employed photographs of live butterflies and a watchers' standpoint. And Paul Opler and George Krizek's Butterflies East of the Great Plains (Johns Hopkins, 1984) also used photos from nature. So Glassberg is far from the first to take this approach. However, he has made many improvements over previous treatments and produced a near state-of-the-art effort. Besides, authors should not be held responsible for publishers' flak.
Let us now take a field trip through the field guide and see how it works. The clever cover shows two bright beauties as if through binoculars, inviting you in. The title is inspired, the subtitle unwieldy; it might have benefited from one of the nicknames for the region (Bosnywash, Bos-Wash Corridor). The region covered, excluding Long Island and outer Chesapeake, is small enough to treat in detail. I like the idea of addressing the resource near where most of the people live, rather than taking the view that would-be watchers must travel to distant wildlands.
The endpapers contain twelve black silhouettes representing seven "families" to be encountered in the book's range. This tool, borrowed from early Peterson guides, might help novices learn to recognize "type" more readily from the basic shape of the subject.
The text begins with brief commendations by Big Guns. E. O. Wilson's Foreword speaks with grace of the impulse that leads us into these Elysian fields: ". . . to re-acquire a sense of timeless languor ... to be free in a world without destruction or pollution, an aurelian again!" He characterizes the book, aptly enough, as "a people's natural history," user-friendly, and an open door. Robert Robbins' Preface predicts an "explosion of interest in butterflies," something that is already coming true and which Glassberg's book is poised to assist.
The author's copious acknowledgments conclude with a switch delightful for its attitude if not its syntax: "If you find something you find objectionable in this book, please randomly choose one of the above reviewers and assign the responsibility for the error to
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them." This fairly represents both the prose (workmanlike) and humor (good) of the following 160 pages.
The first twenty comprise an introduction telling how to use the book. "How to Find Butterflies" is a bit brief and vague, but complemented by later habitat descriptions. "How to Identify" gives a good, clear opening to this demanding part of the practice. The important sections on "Binoculars" and "Photography," although adequate, are very general. For a book with such an emphasis as this one has, more detail and brand comparison would have been warranted and helpful. Enthusiasts will quickly outgrow these curt remarks and wish for more of the authors experience. The advice, what there is of it, is good, solid, and clear.
"Butterfly Lives" is still more concise, as is "Butterfly Gardening," followed by short lists of garden species and nectar sources. The detailed understanding, it is implied, will come through your own observation. The two remaining text sections, however, are treated in more detail, and appropriately so. First, Glassberg assays "Migration" within the books corridor. In addition to classic patterns of movement, he mentions the lesser-known phenomenon of nymphalids moving south in large numbers in the fall, citing his observation of some 16,000 butterflies of four species passing Brooklyn in one day. His theories are intriguing, though he fails to mention the buckeye as a major mover: that's the one I saw mobbing Cape May along with the southbound warblers and accipiters. He also perpetuates the erroneous belief that most of the California monarchs overwinter near Pacific Grove, but the migration section on the whole is a welcome plea to the many new watchers for further investigation of this murky subject.
The section on "Conservation" stresses the preservation of habitat and diminished pesticide use and pollution. Glassberg envisions "an interconnecting; network of small protected habitat units along with a few larger units," which (if carefully chosen) he feels would suffice to protect most of our butterfly species. Those who have been concerned about NAB As approach to collecting will be interested in Glassberg s statements on the subject, to which he devotes one paragraph. He does believe that collectors, operating without scruples, are "capable of having a significant negative effect on butterfly populations." He cites Mitchells satyr (Neonympha mitchellii) as an example, stating that it is "almost certainly gone from the northeastern United States, extirpated by relentless collection pressure." Nowhere does Glassberg proscribe collecting as such, although Wilson, in his Foreword, equates putting away the net and pins as having; "matured to the level of birders." Neither author mentions that the range data upon which all conservation activities are based owe almost entirely to the activities of collectors. Wilson later says that "butterfly biology is in an early stage of exploration," with a great deal left to be learned; but fails to make clear for the reader that such knowledge will again rely on the immatures who still collect. Nor is it explained that learning butterfly identification comes faster for those who maintain a reference collection, and that strict watchers will experience frustration trying to achieve the powers of recognition that their collecting friends have long since mastered.
We come then to the species accounts, which are the heart of the book. At first glance these resemble every other attempt to personify a creature in a few telegraphic paragraphs, but there are some real innovations here. Some work benter than others. Each account includes the following features: name, size, similar species, identification, habitat, range, specific localities, flight period and abundance, major foodplant(s), and comments. Each of these bears examination for its treatment.
Name. Glassberg explains why he started the committee I declined to join, and uses its recommended names in all cases, sometimes giving alternatives from other field guides. To be fair, some of the committee's departures are improvements. On scientific names, the author discusses a couple of reasons for differences among authors (omitting several reasons) and calls the ICZN gender guideline "a rule only a pedant could love." He fails to identify the authority he follows for scientific names, nor does he designate authors or subspecies.
Size. The author recognizes radical variation in size among individuals of a species, then goes on to adopt a peculiar method of size description involving "size standard" species. So when we look up Dion skipper, we read that it is the size of the Zabulon/Hobomok
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skipper. We have to go to Table 1 to see that this equates to 10/16 inches. Some are ( or ((, others > or )> than the standards. Yet we already know that they all vary, and not necessarily proportionately. From its cumbersome method of secondhand comparison to its quaint sixteenths of an inch, this is not the most successful section. This innovation offers nothing over the good old "23-33 mm" system, or even "small/medium/large."
Similar Species. These do not always correspond. For example, the cabbage white is similar to the checkered white, but apparently not the reverse. Confusingly similar species are sometimes overlooked. For example, many beginners confuse female eastern tailed blues with hairstreaks, a fact not noted here.
Identification. These chatty descriptions nicely capture the looks and sometimes the key behavioral quirks of the species. The jacket hype promises "entirely new field marks" for identification; a tall order this, and I was skeptical. I compared ten confusable species against Klots, Opler, and Pyle. This exercise turned up four new field marks to six established ones—not bad.
Habitat, Range, and Specific Localities. These sections give useful summaries of the species' occurrence—overall, throughout the region covered, and within the local landscape. Unfortunately, the latter section only appears in a minority of accounts—those that are "rare and/or local in one of the subregions," but not so rare as to be liable to what Glassberg calls "the substantial danger of butterfly collectors destroying the localized colonies."
Flight Period and Abundance. These notes are given for each of the four subregions, which correspond to the vicinities of the four major cities that define the region: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. Glassberg notes that this is only a rough guide to variable conditions. Maximum numbers seen are given for seme species and regions, though only sporadically and to uncertain ends: does it tell us anything, or just brag on the authors big days? This feature could use interpretation and more uniform application.
Food Plants. This completes the profile of the species whereabouts. Favored nectar plants are sometimes named.
Comments. Glassberg honestly states that "Here I include remarks of an unpredictable nature;" and about his more lyrical comments, he advises that we may either "accept these at face value, or view them as having been written with an ironic sense of detachment, laced with a nostalgia for an imagined simpler time." If he was nervous about losing his objectivity here, he should have relaxed and done it more. The comments, where they appear, offer some of the best reading in the book. Whether speaking of "hundreds of [Cabbage] Whites dancing around the blooming Purple Loosestrife" or the Gray Comma, "often overlooked because it is most common in woodlands in October when butterfliers become rare," Glassberg broadens our view of the species in question when he indulges his own responses. Writing field guides is the art of balancing between the objectively descriptive and the personal reaction of the writer. When the' latter is lost, the book becomes more sterile. For example, the classic Klots Peterson Field Guide was full of personalia, including egregious puns ("Nysa is very nysally distinguished from other Am-blyscirtes of our area by the distinctive underside pattern," etc.) With many more border species to cover, the Opler/Malikul replacement lacked the room for much in the way of authorial comment. The result is a superb guide but a diminished read. Glassbergs own comments are highly erratic. Among the swallowtails, only the black and the tiger rate comments. Skippers get very few overall. 1 would like more. It is through these asides that we can appreciate the author's individual lens on the subject, and Glassbergs is a sharp and colorful view to be enjoyed, when he unveils it for us.
Six appendices follow, making up about a third of the book. Appendix A offers Descriptions and Checklists for Selected Butterflying Localities. This excellent section includes detailed profiles of nine good butterfly-watching spots known for their diversity, abundance, and accessibility. Each gives a description of the site, a run-down on its butterflies, a list of species to be encountered, and directions, written up by persons familiar with the local conditions. Brief notes follow for 37 additional sites. This will be one of the most useful parts of the book for many, though collectors should note? that butterflies are protected on most of the sites mentioned.
Appendix B gives both the median and ranges for flight periods of New York area
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butterflies. Appendix C conveys the same information graphically, adding the factor of abundance, through an ingenious form of phenogram. These break down the occurrence of New York area butterflies into five-day blocks over a five-year period, as expressed by black bars of three thicknesses for uncommon, common, or abundant. I like these diagrams very much, as they express so much data so compactly. Their chief problems are two: though the data are attributed to the New York Butterfly Club, we are told nothing of the nature, location, or status of the data base itself. And the five years represented are not designated (is this 1875-80 or 1987-92, or what?) so lhat no comparisons are possible with climatic records, Seasons Summaries, or other information. Clearly, the seasonal appearance and abundance of species will vary up and down the corridor of the book's concern. Still, these appendices will give field trippers a good idea of what to expect.
Appendix D is a checklist of the species known to occur in the urban-coastal strip, giving English names only. Many users would prefer to see scientific names here as well. Appendix E lists butterfly societies and clubs. Appendix F usefully lists the Xerces Society's (now NABA co-sponsored) Fourth of July Butterfly Counts that take place regularly within the book's area. Impressively, this now totals 25 annual outings, and counting.
The text wraps up with a glossary of terms used, all anatomical except for the quirky inclusion of the genus Andropogon—ecological and biological additions would have been welcome; a worthwhile, if brief, bibliography; photo credits; anc! an index to species, in both English and Latin, but giving only the primary page-mention.
The forty color plates of butterflies photographed from life complete the book. Their captions, on the opposite page, give both scientific and vernacular names; tell where and often when each was photographed (this is to be applauded); reiterate the chief field marks; and apply an abundance rating for each subregion. Different forms, sexes, and orientations (dorsal, ventral) are often depicted. On the whole, the photographs are excellent. None are obviously manipulated, but for one pinned spec; men. Focus is generally sharp, but occasionally sacrificed for sake of inclusiveness. Some of the subjects are worn—the mourning cloak will not break any hearts—but that's nature, and some of the best of contemporary butterfly photography is highlighted here. Several pages have gaps, and one wonders whether the space might have been well filled v/ith additional clarifying images or representative larvae.
Derivative of Peterson, black lines point out field marks; however, not only do these sometimes interfere with the image, but they have been used only fitfully, and, unless I'm missing something, arbitrarily. Likewise, sex is often indicated but not infrequently omitted, even when it is obvious. The words sometimes do poor justice to the images, such as calling the subtle lilac-silver of the gemmed satyr a "gray patch," or the hyaline spots of Erynnis spp. "white." Skippers are not stinted here. Though they will be daunted at first, diligent watchers should be able eventually to identify most of their Bosnywash butterflies with their binoculars and the aide of this book.
It remains only to make a few general comments and specific corrections. The text would have gained from more consistent and rigorous editing. Jawbreaker jargon ("significantly facilitating") butts heads with a looser, more pleasant voice ("preview your space in heaven"). Overgeneralization plagues the book. Glassberg describes lawns as deserts, but this need not always be true—we all know lawn skippers, blues, and sulphurs on the right kind of lawns—the point is that chemically treated, overmown lawns are impoverished. Likewise, powerlines are recommended as attractive habitats. True, unsprayed lines can be very good, but others are maintained with herbicides and offer little to the lepi-dopterist. I would have welcomed these kinds of specifics. The "field marks" concept should be credited to Roger Tory Peterson, who both coined the term and popularized its use. Glassberg encourages readers to keep lists of what they see and where, but this is too vague. He should give minimum data needs, including detailed date and locality description, and explain why this is important (butterfliers can contribute valuable data). What about notes on behavior? And where can observers "send it in?" State natural heritage programs, butterfly surveys, etc., rely on amateurs' field observations; this should be noted and aided. Watching will never begin to replace catching as a tool for knowledge and conservation until watchers become adept record-keepers, like many birders. In metamorphosis, moulting "will happen a number of times." Why not be specific: "occurs four
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to six times." The statement that some species can overwinter in any stage needs documentation. The author ignores watching without binoculars, and catch-and-release, both very important to versatile and successful butterfly watching as well as to teaching. Learning to identify butterflies comes much faster through careful capture, forceps-exam, and release (which need not injure the animal) than through mere "binocularing."
As with any ambitious book, one could continue to find minor faults until the butterflies come home. However, though it could use some refitting for the second edition, this books strengths outweigh and outnumber its faults. When Jeff Glassberg made his self-styled apotheosis from collector to watcher, he decided to take as many with him as he could, and to attract the multitudes who, until now, have been mired in the quotidian of birds and wildflowers. Happily, he has done so with style, and without actually denigrating collecting per se. He has certainly acted on his convictions, first by founding NABA, and now with this book. T have no doubt that lepidopterology will benefit from a broader public, whatever their chief form of pursuit, so long as they are mutually tolerant and considerate. And I have no doubt that, because of this book, butterflies will win many more devotees among the most densely packed parcel of our populace.
Oxford University Press has produced a handsome, solid, and well-priced volume that is sure to enhance appreciation of a resource undervalued until recently. Lepidopterists will want it as well as those just discovering butterflies. I only wish I'd had it during the three years I spent in New Haven.
ROBERT MICHAEL PYLE, Swede Park, 369 Loop Road, Gray's River, Washington 98621-9702.
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 50(2), 1996, 166-168
Biology And Conservation of The Monarch Butterfly, by Stephen B. Malcolm and Myron P. Zalucki (editors). 1993. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series No. 38. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90007. 419 pages, 2 color plates, numerous B&W photographs and text figures. Hardcover, 18 X 26 cm, ISBN 0079-0903. $90 ( + $9 p&h).
In the Introduction to this volume, the editors, Steve Malcolm and Myron Zalucki, suggest that the Monarch butterfly and its relationships to the biotic and abiotic environment provide a valuable model for investigating a range of questions in all aspects of biology. It was exciting and encouraging to look over this book and realize just how much this butterfly species, its relatives, and its ecological and evolutionary interactions have contributed to our understanding of many basic tenets of biology.
The book is the product of the Second International Conference on the Monarch Butterfly ("Moncon-2"), held in September, 1986, at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California. The international make-up of the participants (from seven countries and four continents) is reflected in the contributions, which served to remind me that, although the Monarch has been proposed as the national insect of the United States, this butterfly does in fact have a very wide distribution and is an important component of the fauna of many parts of the world. The goal of the book, like the goal of the Conference, seems to be to bring together a variety of papers that exemplify the diversity of studies that have featured aspects of the biology of the Monarch butterfly. In that it was successful: the book is diverse in subject matter, represents many different perspectives, and encompasses many different fields of endeavor.
The book is divided into 10 sections: Introduction; Systematics; Chemical Communication; Mating Behavior; Hostplant Use, Cardenolide Sequestration, and Defense Against Natural Enemies; Physiological Ecology and the Annual Cycle; Migration; Overwintering Biology; Conservation; and Conclusions. Each section contains from one to nine chapters that range from short notes, to observational studies, to field and laboratory experiments.