Product Description
The great beauties of the insect world, butterflies have inspired poets, gardeners, scientists, and engineers with their vibrant colors, dizzying patterns, iridescent wing scales, compound eyes, and amazing metamorphosis from crawling caterpillars to winged wonders. Featuring more than 140 striking color photographs by Brian Kenney and enlightening text by David Badger, this book presents a natural and cultural history of these ephemeral creatures from the order Lepidoptera. Butterflies highlights 60 of the most fascinating butterfly species from around the world, including painted ladies, variable crackers, long-tailed skippers, Southern dogfaces, American snouts, Guatemalan satyrs, ruddy daggerwings, and shoemakers.
Badger also offers an introduction to physical characteristics and behavior, butterfly-human relations, conservation, and the art of photographing butterflies. Sprinkled throughout the book are excerpts from literature throughout the ages, adding a nice touch of elegance to the stunning photo collection. Gorgeously illustrated and written in accessible and engaging prose, this book is a must for butterfly enthusiasts—and for anyone else who cherishes the splendors of the natural world.
Review
orida Times-Union (Jacksonville), Nov. 26, 2006
“Text about the natural and cultural history of these winged wonders accompanies stunning close ups.”
From the Back Cover
presents a natural and cultural history of the great beauties of the insect world. Featuring 140 striking color photographs by Brian Kenney and informative text by David Badger, the book highlights 60 of the most fascinating butterfly species from around the world, including painted ladies, variable crackers, long-tailed skippers, Southern dogfaces, American snouts, Guatemalan satyrs, ruddy daggerwings, and shoemakers. Badger also offers an introduction to physical characteristics and behavior, butterfly-human relations, conservation, and the art of photographing butterflies.
Gorgeously illustrated and written in accessible and engaging prose, this guide is a must for butterfly enthusiasts—and for anyone else who cherishes the splendors of the natural world.
About the Author
Author David Badger is a professor of journalism at Middle Tennessee State University. He was a film critic for WPLN-FM Public Radio in Nashville for thirteen years, and a book reviewer and columnist for the Nashville Tennessean
for seventeen years. He grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, and earned an A.B. degree in English literature from Duke University; M.S.J. degree in editorial journalism from Northwestern University; and Ph.D. in communication from the University of Tennessee. Dave is the author of Frogs, Snakes, Frogs: WorldLife Library, and Lizards, all illustrated with photographs by John Netherton. He is the co-author of Newscraft, a contributor to Free Expression and the American Public, and the editor of more than a dozen books by John Netherton. Dave lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife, Sherry, and son, Jeff.
Photographer Brian Kenney’s spectacular images have won multiple awards in the prestigious National Wildlife and BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions. His work has appeared in most of the major nature publications, including Audubon, BBC Wildlife, Birder’s World, BrownTrout, National Geographic, National Wildlife, National History, Outdoor Photographer, Ranger Rick, Sinra, Das Tier, and Wildlife Conservation. Brian’s previous books include Florida’s Fabulous Butterflies (with Thomas Emmel) and Florida’s Fabulous Insects (with Mark Deyrup). Each year, hundreds of his photographs appear in books, magazines, and calendars around the world. He shares his home in North Port, Florida, with a gardenful of butterflies.
