Madame Butterfly

"Butterflies of the Oriental Region, Part 1" is a reference work on the butterflies of south Asia: India, Indochina, south China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaya and the East Indies up to Flores.

It covers three families: Papilionidae, Pieridae and Danaidae. In contrast to many other volumes of this "mother of all encyclopedias", this one could actually work on your coffee table. The reason is, of course, the large and dramatic species of the Oriental region Papilionidae, the birdwing and swallowtail butterflies. The local milkweed butterflies (Danaidae) are also something to actually write home about. "Butterflies of the Oriental region, part 1" is thus excellent for your collection of must-see butterfly books.

Of course, in other ways this work could be considered boring. The species presentations are extremely short, and the photos (although in color) show pinned specimens from the collections of the British Museum.

Still, it's impressive that some butterflies look "all that" even when dead...

Five stars - for who- or whatever made, spawned or selected for the south Asian Papilionidae and Danaidae. ;-)