Butterflies of Northern Europe

This is the original Swedish edition of “Butterflies of Northern Europe”, Björn Dal's artful field guide to the butterflies of Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries and the British Isles.

Originally, Dal projected five volumes covering Europe (except the Soviet Union), Northwest Africa, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. Somewhat idiosyncratically, one of the volumes was supposed to cover the mountain regions of Europe plus the Arctic, which explains why high altitude and high latitude species from Northern Europe haven't been included in this (first) volume. In the end, only two volumes appeared, the second on Central Europe (minus the mountains).

I'm not sure why Dal (who was both author and illustrator) had to shelve the project. Perhaps the flea market for butterfly field guides to Algeria or Transylvania was pretty slim in Sweden circa 1980?

That being said, Dal's book is pretty interesting, since it shows the butterflies as they actually look like (more or less) when flying or visiting flowers – the illustrator has purposely avoided the classical “pinned” collection specimens usually shown in field guides. Presumably, you are not supposed to kill the beauties!

123 species belonging to 7 families are covered. The moth-like skippers have been included, being a kind of “honorary” butterflies. To a Swede, most of the “true” butterflies shown are familiar, including the Peacock, the Tortoiseshell, the Mourning Cloak and the Apollo. The Common Brimstone is said to be, well, common. Haven't seen one for ages! Even the Monarch has been included, since it occasionally shows its mettle on the British Isles.

Perhaps the world has moved on since Björn Dal's unfinished butterfly library (volume one is dated 1978), but personally I get a bit nostalgic when browsing this little gem…