Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions

California Natural History Guides #92

by Arthur M. Shapiro, Timothy D. Manolis (Illustrator)

The California Tortoiseshell, West Coast Lady, Red Admiral, and Golden Oak Hairstreak are just a few of the many butterfly species found in the floristically rich San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions. This guide, written for both beginning and experienced butterfly watchers by one of the nation’s best-known professional lepidopterists, provides thorough, up-to-date information on all of the butterfly species found in this diverse and accessible region. Written in lively prose, it discusses the natural history and conservation status for these butterflies and at the same time provides an integrated view of butterfly biology based on studies conducted in northern California and around the world. Compact enough for use in the field, the guide also includes tips on butterfly watching, photography, gardening, and more.

* Discusses and identifies more than 130 species

* Species accounts include information on identifying butterflies through behavior, markings, and host plants

* Beautiful full-color plates illustrate top and bottom views of wings for easier identification

* Includes a species checklist and a glossary

Genres: Nature, Field Guides, Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Lance Mellon]

An extensive field guide in the search for the blue butterfly.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read the entire book, but the introduction is a fascinating synopsis of butterfly biology and natural history. If you are hoping to escape distressing news in the fluttering wings, you'll be disappointed, because it turns out butterflies are not cool with climate change. As a guidebook for someone who tries to identify butterflies after chasing them around and trying to take pictures of them, this is also a very handy reference.

[Scott Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guide covers the butterfly species found in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions of California. The authors use Ernst Mayr's "biological species concept, in which the essential criterion is the ability to interbreed. Members of the same species can exchange genes freely, while members of different species cannot." The most informative and fascinating sections of this book were found in the introductory chapter. I especially appreciated references to early naturalists such as Louis Agassiz ("father of the Ice Age"), Carolus Linnaeus ("like most people in Christian Europe, he accepted that God had created the biosphere pretty much as it is today"), and of course Charles Darwin, who "rather than giving us a map of the mind of God as reflected in His creation, taxonomy would now mirror ancestor-descendant (phylogenetic) relationships among the organisms." But the truly unique aspect to butterflies is to be found in the four distinct life cycle stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult butterfly. The authors provide salient details of the physical differences between butterflies in the species account, but also remind us that it's "a truism that to really know your butterflies, you have to know your plants." One of my hopes after reading this book is to someday identify, photograph, and help protect the eight endangered species/subspecies unique to our area (Mission Blue, Lotis Blue, San Bruno Elfin, Lange's Metalmark, Bay Checkerspot, Myrtle's Silverspot, Callippe Silverspot, Behrens' Silverspot).

[Ken-ichi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously I didn't read this cover to cover, but the introductory material is particularly good. Shapiro has the casual, kind of kooky by indisputably knowledgeable tone of Aurora, and to some extent Rickets, which I'm sort internally thinking as the "Californian Biologist Style." Thorough with details, humble with ignorance, constantly reminding the reader that the world is both amazing and largely unknown.

The plates are far inferior to Kaufman, to the point that I would hesitate to recommend this book as an identification guide. I don't understand why so many of the CA Natural History guides insist on variable backgrounds, occasionally with a weird stonewash pattern. Manolis's illustrations are good, and probably cover more of the regional variation than larger-scale guides, but Kaufman's more accurate colors, scale diagrams, maps on every page, and Peterson-style trait arrows make for a much more useful identification tool.

That said, this book *does* have really, really excellent, in-depth natural history for the SF Bay Area butterflies, covering many things that Kaufman does not. Each species gets an in-depth treatment, including specific localities, historical info, breeding and local larval food plant listings (different populations use different species!), etc. For someone who's just getting into butterflies, that kind of detail is invaluable.

[Joseph Burk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful field guide to the butterflies in my area. Excellent text and illustrations make this a must read for those wishing to gain knowledge of the natural world.