British & Irish Butterfly Rarities

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all - shameless plug follows

I'm in the process of writing a follow-on and complementary work to 'Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies', entitled 'British & Irish Butterfly Rarities' that covers all of the other butterfly species in the official checklist. I've created a website at https://www.butterflyrarities.com that provides more detail (sample pages to follow). The book will be published in September/October this year and, while most of the text is written and images obtained, we really want to absorb as many of 2023's butterfly events as possible ... hence the timing.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to seek your support in getting the book published (these things don't come cheap and the increase in the cost of something as simple as a piece of paper is quite shocking!). As with the 'Life Cycles' book, you'll get your name (or other dedication) in the book aligned with your species of choice, and a signed copy in return for a contribution. Thanks in advance for those of you that even consider this! The support page is here:

https://www.butterflyrarities.com/become-a-supporter/

Feel free to ask any questions in this thread, since this may ensure that the book is scoped appropriately and contains the expected detail!

Cheers,

- Pete

[selbypaul]

Looking forward to reading it Pete!

[PhilM]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for posting about this important forthcoming book. I have a suggestion that I believe will enhance the completeness of the book and go a long way to making the two volumes (Life Cycles and Rarities) the most comprehensive modern record on British and Irish Rhopalocera. It may also encourage sales of Life Cycles to people that buy Rarities but do not already own a copy of the original book, and vice-versa.

You could add an index to Rarities that covers the content of both volumes. This will make it easier for readers that are not conversant with British and Irish butterfly families who would like to find a particular species quickly. Having an index in the second book that covers both volumes would also help knit the two volumes together and it would solve the problem of the missing index in Life Cycles.

Best wishes,
Phil.

[Pete Eeles]

A belated thanks, Paul (I believe I replied separately - and looking forward to meeting you later this year!), and thanks for the suggestion, Phil.

Phil ... without making excuses, I agree that the Life Cycles book should have had an index, even if the index was simply aligned with both scientific and vernacular names of the species included, as per the contents listing. This would have been especially important for those in Europe that probably look for the scientific name first (I know I do, when reading European works, especially if they're not written in English!). At least it allowed an additional 2 or 4 pages of content to remain, since we had a hard limit of 400 pages. There was quite a lot left on the 'cutting room floor'!

Regarding your suggestion ... the Rarities book needs to stand alone since I can't assume that readers will have purchased the Life Cycles book. In fact, readers may feel pretty 'miffed' if they feel they've been short-changed through the implication that they should also buy 'Life Cycles'. And, of course, an index to a different book will take up space.

Anyway - thanks for the thought. I may put something online that is the Life Cycles index, as I've done with the references for that book: https://www.butterflylifecycles.com/extras/

The Rarities book is somewhat of a different beast, requiring much more research; there are 35 pages of references alone, although this will compress down to about 18 pages in the book itself. And you'll be pleased to hear that we're planning an index It's also on track - all of the 63 species descriptions have been written and been reviewed by the 5 reviewers, and I'm in the process of addressing their excellent comments. While there are some items to address, their feedback has also been very positive, which is a good sign!

Cheers,

- Pete

[PhilM]

Fair enough Pete, 'Rarities' does sound interesting, I wish it every success. I'll wait until you have published some sample pages as mentioned, then will probably order myself a copy if all is looking good.

Best wishes,
Phil.

[jonhd]

Getting excited now! It's in NHBS mailshots

https://www.nhbs.com/british-irish-butt ... ities-book

Jon

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Phil - sample pages now here: https://www.butterflyrarities.com/sample-pages/

... although the European distribution map needs updating!

Thanks Jon - although the publication date is end of September. Nature Bureau will get this updated on the NHBS website.

Cheers,

- Pete

[jasonbirder]

Looking forward to this! Keeping my out for a confiormed publicatiuon date

[jasonbirder]

Very pleasantly surprised when my pre-ordered copy dropped on my doormat earlier!
Looks great and up the quality of the excellent earlier Life Cycles volume...
Not had chance to do more than flip through yet...though a little dissapointed Large Chequered Skipper was omitted because of geography and no Southern Small Whitemight make the volume out of date very quickly LOL!
Can't wait to dig in and read properly! Fantastic stuff.

[millerd]

My copy arrived this morning as well, and I can see myself getting thoroughly and lengthily sidetracked away from the things I probably should be doing. A splendid follow-up to "Life Cycles" - a big thank you to Pete for all the effort and the extraordinary amount of research that must have gone into producing it.

Cheers,

Dave

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Jason!

a little dissapointed Large Chequered Skipper was omitted because of geography

The focus is Britain and Ireland, for the reasons given (the butterfly fauna of the Channel Islands being more closely aligned with that of northern France, rather than the British Isles). Someone should write a book on the butterflies of the Channel Islands, since they've also had quite a few 'rarities' turn up!

and no Southern Small White

It's mentioned on page 313. The Southern Small White has never been found in Britain, despite it being a likely visitor for the last 3 or 4 years - so there's no guarantee that it will be the next species added to the checklist. Will Langdon wrote an excellent piece on it that I refer to.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

My copy arrived this morning as well, and I can see myself getting thoroughly and lengthily sidetracked away from the things I probably should be doing. A splendid follow-up to "Life Cycles" - a big thank you to Pete for all the effort and the extraordinary amount of research that must have gone into producing it.

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks Dave!

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

Pleased to say mine arrived yesterday too, although I haven't yet had time to take a look through it.

I'm sure it will be just as good as the original 'Life-cycles' publication.

[jasonbirder]

Hi Pete...thanks for responding and please don't take it as a critisism...
The books overall quality is amazing and the detail is fantastic...it must have take a huge amount of research!
I'm trying to pace myself by only reading a couple of species descriptions/day!!!
I guess...adding "x and y" requested by us readers could go on almost indefinately!!!
Oh and i'd missed p313 about Southern Small White...so I was wrong on that one!

[jonhd]

My copy arrived today. What a lovely start to the day!

- Fab 'companion' to "LIFE CYCLES..."
- Scholarly - as the author puts it, 'an archaeological dig'
- Really appreciate the sections (Primary, Adventive, Questionable, and Future)
- Beautiful (largely thanks to our six-legged friends themselves, of course)

Congratulations, Pete. You should be really proud.

Jon

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Pete...thanks for responding and please don't take it as a critisism...
The books overall quality is amazing and the detail is fantastic...it must have take a huge amount of research!
I'm trying to pace myself by only reading a couple of species descriptions/day!!!
I guess...adding "x and y" requested by us readers could go on almost indefinately!!!
Oh and i'd missed p313 about Southern Small White...so I was wrong on that one!

No problem! I didn't take it as a criticism ... I just wanted anyone reading this thread to have the correct info!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

My copy arrived today. What a lovely start to the day!

- Fab 'companion' to "LIFE CYCLES..."
- Scholarly - as the author puts it, 'an archaeological dig'
- Really appreciate the sections (Primary, Adventive, Questionable, and Future)
- Beautiful (largely thanks to our six-legged friends themselves, of course)

Congratulations, Pete. You should be really proud.

Jon

Thanks Jon!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Rogerdodge]

Pete
Just received mine.
Excellent piece of work. Will keep me busy for the weekend.
Thanks again.

Roger

[Neil Freeman]

Recieived my copy yesterday too

Only had chance for a quick flick through so far but first impression is that it is another superb work and a perfect companion volume to 'Life Cycles...'

Well done Pete.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Vince Massimo]

I'm pleased to report that my copy arrived today. It looks superb and it only takes a few pages to appreciate the vast amount of research that went into its production. Congratulations Pete, I hope you can now have a well-earned rest .

Vince