Notes & Views of the Purple Emperor
Author: Ian Robert Penicuick Heslop
Publisher:
Published: 1964-01-01
Total Pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780785506676
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Lanterna Rally
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His Imperial Majesty
Author: Matthew Oates
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-06-11
Total Pages: 425
ISBN-13: 1472950135
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A witty and informative account that busts the myths about Britain's most captivating butterfly species. When summer is at its zenith and the sallow foliage develops a bluish tinge, a giant butterfly – beautiful, bold and brazen – flies powerfully over the tree canopy. Females of this species, wary yet determined, haunt the sallow thickets, depositing their eggs, while the males establish treetop territories and descend to the woodland floor in search of indelicacies to feed upon. Mysterious, elusive and enthralling in equal measure, this is the butterfly that Victorian collectors yearned for above all others: His Imperial Majesty, the Purple Emperor. A wondrous enigma, the Purple Emperor is our most elusive and least-known butterfly – we glimpse it only through fissures in its treetop world, yet this giant insect has fascinated us for centuries and has even inspired its own 'Emperoring' language. Matthew Oates became captivated by the Purple Emperor following his first sighting as a boy. He has studied it assiduously ever since, devoting his life to trying to unravel the Emperor's secrets. His Imperial Majesty takes us on a journey, beginning with a dalliance into the bizarre history of our engagement with the butterfly, with daring doings and gross eccentricities from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Subsequent chapters explore all aspects of this remarkable butterfly's life cycle, including behaviour, habitat preferences, life history and conservation, all relayed in Matthew's unique, informative and witty style. Not so long ago, our knowledge of the Emperor was largely based on a blend of mythology and assumption. This book dispels the fabrications and reveals all about the Purple Emperor – the king of British butterflies.
The Pygmy Hippo Story
Author: Phillip T. Robinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 441
ISBN-13: 0190611855
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Though the pygmy hippopotamus has been designated as a flagship species of West African forests (meaning that by raising conservation efforts for a single species, an entire ecological region could benefit), very little research has been published on the animal. They are solitary, nocturnal, and highly evasive, and until recent developments in "camera trap" technology, they were considered the least-photographed large mammal species in the world. The information currently available on this endangered species is scattered, limited, redundant, and often inaccurate, and no major volume exists as a resource for those interested in the conservation effort for the species, until now. Phillip Robinson and his coauthors provide a treatment of the natural history, biology, and ecology of the pygmy hippo, along with a discussion of the rare animal's taxonomic niche and a summary of the research initiatives involving it up to this point. The authors show the ways in which the pygmy hippo has come into contact with people in West African countries, both in terms of ecological and cultural impact. This creature has been the subject of local folktales, and is treated as almost mythic in some regions. Information on issues related to captivity, breeding, and zoos is provided. The book is heavily illustrated with original photographs and anatomic drawings. The project should be of use to conservation biologists, zoologists and natural history readers, and will be the definitive single-volume account of an animal that the scientific community has designated to be ecologically significant to West Africa.
Rainbow Dust
Author: Peter Marren
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2016-10-31
Total Pages: 329
ISBN-13: 022639591X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Like fluttering shards of stained glass, butterflies possess a unique power to pierce and stir the human soul. Indeed, the ancient Greeks explicitly equated the two in a single word, psyche, so that from early times butterflies were not only a form of life, but also an idea. Profound and deeply personal, written with both wisdom and wit, Peter Marren’s Rainbow Dust explores this idea of butterflies—the why behind the mysterious power of these insects we do not flee, but rather chase. At the age of five, Marren had his “Nabokov Moment,” catching his first butterfly and feeling the dust of its colored scales between his fingers. It was a moment that would launch a lifetime’s fascination rivaling that of the famed novelist—a fascination that put both in good company. From the butterfly collecting and rearing craze that consumed North America and Europe for more than two hundred years (a hobby that in some cases bordered on madness), to the potent allure of butterfly iconography in contemporary advertisements and their use in spearheading calls to conserve and restore habitats (even though butterflies are essentially economically worthless), Marren unveils the many ways in which butterflies inspire us as objects of beauty and as symbols both transient and transcendent. Floating around the globe and through the whole gamut of human thought, from art and literature to religion and science, Rainbow Dust is a cultural history rather than merely a natural one, a tribute to butterflies’ power to surprise, entertain, and obsess us. With a sway that far surpasses their fragile anatomy and gentle beat, butterfly wings draw us into the prismatic wonders of the natural world—and, in the words of Marren, these wonders take flight.
In Pursuit of Butterflies
Author: Matthew Oates
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-06-04
Total Pages: 379
ISBN-13: 1472924517
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The butterflies of Britain, in the words of one of their greatest champions Matthew Oates has led a butterflying life. Naturalist, conservationist and passionate lover of poetry, he has devoted himself to these exalted creatures: to their observation, to singing their praises, and to ensuring their survival. Based on fifty years of detailed diaries, In Pursuit of Butterflies is the chronicle of this life. Oates leads the reader through a lifetime of butterflying, across the mountain tops, the peat bogs, sea cliffs, meadows, heaths, the chalk downs and great forests of the British Isles. Full of humour, zeal, digression, expertise and anecdote, this book provides a profound encounter with one of our great butterfly lovers, and with a half-century of butterflies in Britain.
The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland
Author: Jeremy Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-03-26
Total Pages: 753
ISBN-13: 1472982363
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →WINNER OF THE 2010 GUARDIAN NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE 1991 NATURAL WORLD BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD The Butterflies of Britain & Ireland provides comprehensive coverage of all our resident and migratory butterflies, including the latest information on newly discovered species such as Cryptic Wood White and the Geranium Bronze. When first published in 1991 it won the Natural World Book of the Year Award and won plaudits from all quarters. Fully revised, considerably expanded and reset in 2010, it was judged that year's Guardian Nature Book of the Year. Now revised again to reflect the latest research findings, and with up-to-date distribution maps, this remarkable book is THE guide to the appearance, behaviour, life cycle and ecology of the butterflies of Britain and Ireland.
The Aurelian Legacy – a History of British Butterflies and their Collectors
Author: Michael Salmon
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2021-10-25
Total Pages: 432
ISBN-13: 9004475478
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Although the collecting of butterflies is today an emotive subject, it is impossible to separate a history of British butterflies from a history of their collectors, without whose activities our knowledge of the identification, occurrence, distribution, and variation of British butterflies would be much the poorer. Liberally laced with contemporary quotations, this book brings to life the past three hundred years of butterfly study, with details of early societies, collecting equipment, biographies of 101 deceased lepidopterists, with portraits where available, as well as the chequered history in Britain of some 35 species of butterfly. The colour plates include some of the finest butterfly illustrations ever.
The Aurelian Legacy
Author: Michael A. Salmon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 432
ISBN-13: 0520229630
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This entertaining and informative book traces the history of butterfly collection in Britain from the 17th century, when the study of natural history had its beginnings. Laced with anecdotes and quotations, the beautifully illustrated volume describes the equipment used and gives brief biographies of 101 deceased lepidopterists. 58 illustrations, 42 in color.
British Wildlife
The Riddle of the Purple Emperor
Author: Thomas W. Hanshew
Publisher: DigiCat
Published: 2022-07-20
Total Pages: 186
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Riddle of the Purple Emperor is a mystery novel by Thomas W. Hanshew. Hamiton Cleek must solve a mysterious riddle, in this story where people change their identity by simple ways and present our detective with ongoing problems to solve.
