Butterfly Moses

"The butterflies of Egypt" by Torben B. Larsen was published in 1990. It attempts to summarize the then-current knowledge of Egyptian butterflies and place them in an ecological and biogeographical perspective. Since there are only 58 species of butterflies in the land of the Pharaohs, the book is relatively short. It includes colour plates.

The author has been very thorough, and one chapter is titled "Species that might possibly occur in Egypt, surprising absentees or species that have been recorded in error". One of the surprises is the Old World Swallowtail, common in Israel but unknown in Egypt. A Zionist? The Common Baron was once found on imported mango at Suez. It's really an Indian species.

Larsen clearly wants to impress his readers, at one point claiming to have seen the Sahara Swallowtail hill-topping around the little chapel at the summit of Gebel Musa, better known as Mount Sinai. If he also saw burning bushes, is not revealed.

All in all, I give this little book on Egyptian butterflies five stars. Next year, I'm sure our Butterfly Moses can write a book about the butterflies of Libya!