British Butterflies

Chapter 3: INTRODUCTORY EDITORIAL NOTE

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About This Book

This practical natural-history guide presents the life cycle of butterflies, methods for field capture, preservation and mounting (including the Paisley method), and techniques for rearing and conserving larvae and pupae. It describes the butterflies found in Britain with concise identification notes and plates showing adult insects and developmental stages, supplemented by photographic and coloured illustrations. Practical chapters explain egg and caterpillar recognition, setting and storage apparatus, and specimen preservation, blending hands-on instruction with observational natural history for amateur collectors and students.

INTRODUCTORY EDITORIAL NOTE

I take it that this little “Peep at Nature,” needs no apology; the exquisite coloured plates, produced direct from natural butterflies by the three-colour process, are a sufficient justification of its appearance.

The author is a practical entomologist of many years’ standing. He writes from the fulness of a rich experience in the fields. He justly advocates the “Paisley” method of setting insects. I know it to be the more expeditious, and less calculated to damage specimens, than the ordinary process. His notes on the preservation of larvæ will be welcome in many quarters.

The publishers desire me to express their indebtedness to Messrs. Watkins and Doncaster, 36, Strand, W.C., for kindly arranging and lending the specimens from which the coloured plates have been produced.

CHARLES A. HALL.