All hail to the Duke of Burgundy

Review of "Butterflies of the Holarctic Region, Part 3" by Bernard D´Abrera  

This is the third part of three in a series covering the butterflies of the Holarctic region, which includes North America (including about half of Mexico), North Africa and most of the Eurasian landmass. In this context, "butterflies" refer to the "true" butterflies - the skippers have been excluded. The same author has also published encyclopedic books on the butterflies of the Neotropics, Afrotropics, Australasia and south Asia. Interestingly, he is a creationist rather than a Darwinist, and has taken the liberty to spice the books with some (frankly weird) creationist comments. He also claims that the Appolos are objects of a veritable cult among butterfly-collectors, and that one better stays clear from such people! However, this particular volume doesn't seem tom contain any sensational information above the average. Presumably, there is no cultus of the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary! Why not, I wonder?

As already pointed out, this book contains very little information on the butterflies featured. Overall, it's a catalogue-like reference featuring photos of pinned Holarctic specimens from the British Museum. This volume covers the following families: Nymphalidae (continued from the previous volume), Libytheidae, Riodinidae and Lycaenidae.

This book is probably good for advanced collectors of true butterflies, who could use it as a complement to their more regular field guides. General readers might perhaps appreciate it as a coffee table book, but the long rows of pinned specimens might get somewhat boring after a while. Personally, I kind of liked all three Holarctic volumes, perhaps because the butterflies seem so familiar! Am I getting homesick or what?