UKMoths Description
This book, seen as the companion guide to Bernard Skinner's "Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles", is an immense undertaking in it's own right. Jim Porter's unstinting ambition to photograph all the caterpillars of British macrolepidoptera has resulted in this superb volume.
All but a handful of the British species appear as colour photographs in natural settings, and most of the missing species have since been published in the journal Atropos.
With over 850 species illustrated, the photographs are perhaps not as large as they deserve to be, but with usually 18 per plate, skimming through to identify a caterpillar is normally a fairly quick task.
The text for each species has sections on description, foodplants and habits, the latter section often including useful tips on locating caterpillars in the wild, and hints on rearing in captivity. The species text also mentions how the caterpillar in each photographed was obtained.
This is a must-have book for the British lepidopterist, and brings together images of virtually all the butterfly and macro-moth caterpillars probably for the first occasion since Victorian times.
The book can be hard to find, even in the 2010 edition, but is still the definitive guide to British caterpillars. It can often be found for sale second hand through Amazon and other resellers.
