Byelorussian bugs

Believe it or not, but this book was originally published in Minsk back in 1967. Minsk was, of course, a city in the Soviet Union. The English-language translation is from 1988. It's part of an ambitious program financed by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the purpose of which is to translate important foreign-language scientific works. Apparently, a book on the owlet moth larvae of Byelorussia counts as sufficiently important. It's said to be an excellent complement to H. Beck's classic "Die Larvalsystematik der Eulen", which covers Central Europe.

:D

The American editor of the translation questions the keys, and admits that he never heard of the curious preservation techniques used by the Minsk museum of natural history. As for the author, O.I. Merzheevskaya, she pretends that her book has great utilitarian value, since owlet moth larvae are a pest damaging crops, pastures, berries, etc. Therefore, an identification guide is surely needed! In reality, the author is a lady who never left her (sic) bug period, but admitting this behind the Iron Curtain was presumably a no-no.

I'm not sure how to rate this boring reference work on White Russian bugs, but in the end I'll give it three stars. Or instars?