A Naturalist's Guide to the Butterflies & Dragonflies of Sri Lanka (Naturalist's Guides), by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne
A Naturalist's Guide To The Butterflies & Dragonflies Of Sri Lanka (Naturalist's Guides), By Gehan De Silva Wijeyeratne How a straightforward concept by reading can improve you to be an effective person? Reviewing A Naturalist's Guide To The Butterflies & Dragonflies Of Sri Lanka (Naturalist's Guides), By Gehan De Silva Wijeyeratne is a quite straightforward activity. However, exactly how can lots of people be so lazy to review? They will certainly like to invest their leisure time to chatting or socializing. When actually, checking out A Naturalist's Guide To The Butterflies & Dragonflies Of Sri Lanka (Naturalist's Guides), By Gehan De Silva Wijeyeratne will offer you more possibilities to be effective finished with the hard works.
A Naturalist's Guide to the Butterflies & Dragonflies of Sri Lanka (Naturalist's Guides), by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne
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Increasingly the segmentation between birders, butterfly watchers, dragonfly watchers and photographers is reducing as interests overlap and there is a demand for books that cover the three popular groups of birds, butterflies and dragonflies. Having written and photographed the guide to the birds of Sri Lanka in the series, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne has produced a single, compact and portable photographic guide to the butterflies and dragonflies of the country. The emphasis in the 280 species featured is on the commoner species, covering around 90 per cent of the species that a visitor is likely to see. It is also an excellent book for residents to learn about the commoner butterflies and dragonflies before progressing to more advanced technical books.
The guide is focused on field use to help beginners and experts identify species and provides information on their distribution and habitats. As identification of butterflies and dragonflies require a different approach, the two sections are done as two mini photographic field guides with common introductory sections to wildlife watching in Sri Lanka. The book includes information on the key wildlife sites, general introductions to the biology of dragonflies and butterflies, up-to-date checklists with local status and useful references for people who wish to progress further with their study of these charismatic and photogenic animals.
A Naturalist's Guide to the Butterflies & Dragonflies of Sri Lanka (Naturalist's Guides), by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne- Amazon Sales Rank: #2487874 in Books
- Published on: 2015-11-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.29" h x .45" w x 5.07" l, .61 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 176 pages
About the Author Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne is one of Sri Lanka's most high profile wildlife personalities. Gehan graduated in Civil Engineering from the Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine. He went on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant in London and become a risk management specialist in banking. He is passionate about Sri Lanka's natural history and has authored and photographed over 300 articles for national and international newspapers and magazines on Sri Lankan biodiversity, travel and bus
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Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A primer, field guide and reference By Sarakani The author of this book has almost single-handedly pioneered a resurgent popular interest in the biodiversity of Sri Lanka, particularly with regards to birds and cetaceans within the last two decades. Into this slim volume he has funnelled a great deal of fieldwork documenting butterflies and dragonflies commonly encountered by nature travellers and curious residents in Sri Lanka.Of coffee table books on the island’s biota there is no end. Monumental in size and price, the quality of writing often does not match the photos – these are typically available in Sri Lankan bookshops only, but will often be of limited use in the field. In the “naturalists guide” series here the difference is refreshing: the pithy volumes are constrained in imagery and writing – but the text encompasses more than enough for morning and evening reading as well as acting as field guides with pictures that are practical if not ostentatious. The book combines portability with extensive content – not least thanks to colour coding, small margins and judicious typesetting.There are no cheap field guides covering Sri Lanka’s extensive fauna of common colourful flying invertebrates that are largely subsumed under the title of this book. John and Judy Banks field guide to butterflies in Sri Lanka (mentioned in this book) is probably out of print and perhaps dated, though the illustrations were good. This book fills a pressing void in covering this vital subject, not just for Sri Lanka, but as a representative popular field guide that would typically be absent or highly unusual in a developing tropical country – the sorts of places where wildlife is richest but also sadly likely to be ignored and trashed by commerce and people (e.g., parts of Indonesia, Thailand or Cuba).One would be lucky to find a decent ornithological field guide to a place like Fiji, but butterflies? Forget it. In this respect, Sri Lanka has been well served by a colonial past that took pains at starting inventories of biodiversity – many of them now out-dated but serving to revive interest as identification guides. Birds have generally never been out of fashion, but spiders, ants and beetles got lost, not just in the wild but also as rare and unused dusty manuscripts in odd libraries, accessible only to the specialist. Lepidopterans and perhaps odonata generally commanded interest, especially from tourists but popular books have never easily been available or accessible and this guide is a much needed start or addition to popular and inexpensive literature.Here, De Silva W. has used field experience and the relatively obscure historical references to resurrect and inform the reader about the island’s Lepidopeterans and Odonata – there is a fair amount of updated taxonomic information on families and subfamilies. In the first half of the book, around 150 butterflies (species or subspecies) are covered, followed by some 30 damselflies and 46 dragonflies – readers are informed that this coverage represents 90% of species to be commonly encountered. The pictures are informative though the editorial selection would have been more limited given the relative paucity of photos unlike in ornithology. Some taxa command a whole page, though it is typically 2 per page. There are subdivisions according to family interspersed with detailed notes and tables on problem identifications. For a few of the taxa that have been poorly worked on – it is almost virgin territory and De Silva W. has had to coin new descriptive terms for wing patterns. The dragonfly section is smaller with room for improvement. It is creditable that both damselflies and dragonflies are incorporated with tabulated taxonomic descriptions. Both groups are provided with checklists. There are maps, lists of naturalist tour operators and information on conservation status. I was especially impression by a detailed assessment of taxonomy. There are around 177 pages with a good bibliography and full indexes.Being focussed on butterflies, you wont find the Atlas moth here. Many of the butterfly images lack the upper wing surface though this would scarcely be critical in identifying the smaller and drabber varieties. Several taxa have more than one image – sometimes illustrating behaviour such as dragonflies mating – all taxa represented have at least one colour image. The descriptions compensate for any illustrative inadequacies by notes and helpful remarks in the taxa descriptions – these are actually of great value and atypical for the traditional butterfly fieldwork where illustrated upper and under surfaces of wings replace a great deal of text that could prove stimulating. These descriptions include a strong botanical element with identifications of the host plants that caterpillars or adults may use with binomial or familial level plant identities. Most readers, myself included would be novices to the subject so this book is more than a welcome addition. As Gehan hints, it may lead to further work and he mentions upcoming studies by specialists. He has consulted widely, not just from books but also from scientists to keep the work as well informed as possible.The modern nature tourist can snap high-speed images of butterflies, as never before as De Silva W. remarks that would aid identification and I’ve already identified various unnamed butterflies in my photo collection. I did however note, that a iridescent blue/green damsel-or dragonfly commonly seen by rivers seemed absent – the dragonfly section could doubtless be improved in future editions. Overall, this book is both a primer and a reference to feed a growing interest in these popular insects and it may lead to similar popular much needed and yet absent works to cover other arthropods that are often encountered such as beetles, ants or even leeches. I would hope for future editions of this or related works with room for editorial improvement as well as content. This book is highly recommended to amateurs and specialists given the relative scarcity of works in this genre, not just in Sri Lanka.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Another wonderful addition to the 'Naturalist's Guide' series. By Georgie Gemmell In recent years, Sri Lanka has become known as one of the top wildlife destinations in the world, and rightfully so; the diversity of wildlife in comparison to its size is staggering. The island is famed for its large charismatic mammals both on land and at sea, as well as boasting a stunning array of colourful and vibrant birdlife. But in his latest addition to the ‘Naturalist’s Guide’ series, Gehan aims to acquaint the nature traveler with a group of creatures equally as vibrant and photogenic, albeit on a smaller scale- the butterflies and dragonflies.As with the island’s birdlife, these colourful creatures can be encountered on almost any itinerary, so no doubt at some point their intricate beauty and interesting array of behaviours will catch the eye and beckon the need to know more. Whether you are new to the world of winged insects or an avid enthusiast, Gehan’s latest work provides the perfect introduction to the island’s butterfly and dragonfly fauna.This attractive little book, like previous work in the ‘Naturalist’s Guide’ series, has a compact field-friendly design. Some 148 butterfly and 78 dragonfly species are spaciously described and illustrated with large, clear beautiful images. Field-specific information for each species is provided using a quick reference layout, including identification features, flight characteristics, distribution and larval food plants. Where relevant, the author has included additional images to illustrate seasonal colour forms or species that exhibit sexual dimorphism. Sought-after endemic species are indicated with a small green ‘e’ symbol alongside the common and scientific name. Both the butterfly and dragonfly section have their own introduction laden with additional information such as classification, basic topography, conservation status, lifecycle, a glossary, a species checklist and user-friendly guide to common behaviours.As a professional naturalist who has worked in Sri Lanka, I believe Gehan’s photographic guides should be a backpack staple for anyone spending anytime on the island. His authoritative and yet user-friendly tone accompanied by just the right amount of scientific information makes this book the ideal guide for both the beginner and field professional alike.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. True field guide, a lot of of additional information By SI2000 Considering its small size, Sri Lanka has extremely lot to offer in terms of its biodiversity. Ecotourism in general gained a lot of popularity here in last two decades and apart of birds and large mammals, some smaller groups of animals, among them also insects, are increasingly in focus of naturalists traveling to the island.Both butterflies and dragonflies are strikingly beautiful insects. However, also quite diverse in number of species so it is not very easy to put a name on each subject of one’s admiration. Thus to have a compact, small format and easy-to-use book which enables identification of the majority of species of butterflies and dragonflies one is likely to encounter while traveling Sri Lanka in your pocket, is a pure luxury. And “A Naturalist’s Guide to the butterflies and dragonflies of Sri Lanka”, written by prolific writer, naturalist and wildlife expert Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, is far more than that. Not only in the field, this combined guide will be a welcomed companion also in the evenings since it offers an extensive pool of additional information on species’ general characteristics, biology, habitats, distribution etc., plus a lot of general information on butterflies and dragonflies of Sri Lanka. Island’s endemics are well covered, of course. While in the butterflies around 10% of the species and subspecies are endemic, the level of endemism in the dragonflies of Sri Lanka is extraordinary- almost 50% of the dragonfly fauna is confined to the island. Many endemic dragonflies are quite common and also well covered in the present Naturalist’s Guide.I’m strongly recommending this combined field guide to everyone. Basic arguments are definitely its well balanced contents, practical design and quality of information, including its affordable price. Congratulations to the author and John Beaufoy Publishing Ltd. for this very nice and useful book.Matjaz Bedjanic, Slovenia
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