A difficult author? Or an impossible reviewer?

This is the fifth part of Bernard D'Abrera's "Butterflies of the Neotropical region". This volume concludes the treatment of Nymphalidae, which began already in part four. It also covers Satyridae (the Browns). The author has also published similar books on butterflies from other parts of the world.

I became fascinated by these books after learning that the author is a Catholic fundamentalist and creationist. In another volume of this series, he even claims that the metalwing butterflies (Riodinidae) are a divine practical joke, and that the Creator therefore has a sense of humor! Thank God - pun intended. In this volume, he reveals that his books have a very small print run (only about 1,500 per volume). He was therefore forced to leave the commercial publisher which printed and distributed his earlier books, and self-publish.

Maybe. And then, maybe not.

D'Abrera attacks the British Museum collection in this volume, which is interesting since most specimens shown in his books are from this particular collection. Apparently, many specimens are misidentified, a bunch of amateurs have been wreaking havoc in the collection for years, etc. This suggests that D'Abrera wasn't simply taking photos of specimens provided by the museum staff, he was actually asking some pesky questions, as well! Perhaps the author is right - after all, he has spent most of his life collecting butterflies in various parts of the world. I have not. The museum obviously didn't kick him out, but who knows what a man like this might do with a publisher who refuses to promote his magnum opus?

I suspect that Brother Bernard might be a somewhat difficult person to work with... ;-)

This particular volume includes both exotic and more boring species. The dullness of most Satyridae definitely affects the rating, so this time our indefatigable author only gets...three stars.