Coming soon: An Illustrated History of Butterflies of the Afrotropical Indian Ocean Islands

We are very pleased to announce our forthcoming title: An Illustrated History of Butterflies of the Afrotropical Indian Ocean Islands: Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Reunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues and Socotra by James M. Lawrence and Mark C. Williams. The title is due for release on 1st May, 2021 and the product page will appear in our online store from early April.

Siri Scientific Press, 978-1-8381528-3-3, RRP £29.99

256 pp, 240 x 165 mm, soft cover, 73 colour plates

Foreword by Steve Collins (African Butterfly Research Institute, ABRI)
What a delight and wonderful opportunity to see the scientific paintings of which many are more than 100 years old, some as early as the establishment of the Linnean classification system over 250 years ago.

Almost all the illustrations used in this book are taken from hand-coloured paintings, which until now have been largely out of reach to the general public, due to the scarcity of the works which are also enormously expensive.

The authors have brought the scientific nomenclature up to the current classification status.

What generally happens when examining a book, particularly when used as a guide, is to turn to and look at the plates before reading the text. Many species from these islands have never been illustrated in a consolidated book before, and this in particular makes this book invaluable for field work. Although not all species are illustrated, they are generally covered in the text.

The Literature review is particularly valuable, as this has also never been consolidated before. Several of those species not illustrated in the 73 plates do appear in the various Figures in this section of the book.

An interesting assembly is to include the Island of Socotra, when generally one thinks of Madagascar and the surrounding islands as the Indian Ocean Islands. What a great opportunity to meet the butterflies of Socotra as well again, what has been written is largely unobtainable.

The authors must be congratulated for their vision, both of whom have previously published Field Guides to the butterflies of Seychelles, Philippines and Southern Africa, as well as the Internet-based encyclopedia Butterflies and Skippers of the Afrotropical Region, and thanked for making the current information available to a much wider audience. Thank you James and Mark and well done.

This book is a must have for any serious student of Afrotropical butterflies.

Steve Collins

African Butterfly Research Institute (ABRI), Nairobi January 2021

Contents

Authors

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Islands

Literature

Species Accounts

Abbreviations used in the text

Higher Classification

Hesperiidae

Coeliadinae

Tagiadinae

Heteropterinae

Malazinae

Hesperiinae

Papilionidae

Papilioninae

Pieridae

Coliadinae

Pierinae

Nymphalidae

Danainae

Heliconiinae

Charaxinae

Biblidinae

Cyrestinae

Libytheinae

Apaturinae

Limenitidinae

Nymphalinae

Satyrinae

Riodinidae

Nemeobiinae

Lycaenidae

Miletinae

Theclinae

Polyommatinae

References

Plates

Index