Overview
- Offers exciting, beautifully written vignettes of life in the field and exciting discoveries by leading lepidopterists
- Brings the reading public in touch with the actual lives of scientists
- Line drawings of butterflies, moths, landscapes, and people give this volume the feel of a field notebook
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (20 chapters)
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Front Matter
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How Did We Get Here?
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Front Matter
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Natural History
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Front Matter
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Secret Lives of Lepidopterists
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
Lepidoptera can be found in the highest tropical canopies,the driest deserts, and at the leading edge of science. The adults include some of the most beautiful insects that have inspired artists and have sailed through the dreams of human cultures for millennia. The immature stages (“caterpillars”), like the underwing depicted on the cover, link together vital processes in diverse terrestrial ecosystems that are only barely documented let alone understood.
The people that study these animals are lepidopterists, and the goal of this book is to introduce them with their own words. In twenty chapters, lepidopterists tell their stories, and these tales mirror the diversity of nature in their range and depth. You will find individuals that wrestle with the challenges of scientific careers, stories of far flung travel sand close calls, and historical perspectives on recent decades of scientific break throughs.
Reviews
“The book is peppered with intriguing scientific facts that effectively balance its emphasis on field anecdotes and natural history. … the lives of lepidopterists clearly mirror the diversity of their study organisms. This book documents the history and experiences of these influential people and the lepidopterists who came before them. Each of them is driven by a deep affection and sense of wonder that is nourished by butterflies and moths, and these experiences can inspire us all.” (Trond H. Larsen, American Entomologist, Vol. 63 (1), Spring, 2017)
“The editors have done an excellent job in compiling a fascinating and eminently readable volume of lasting interest in the history of interest in Lepidoptera, and in cajoling authors to reveal their thoughts and enthusiasms, together with the highlights (and occasional lowlights) of their experiences, to comprise a unique and intriguing set of insights into the maturation of knowledge of butterflies and moths. The book is excellently produced, illuminated with numerous illustrations, many in colour, and with a functional index.” (Tim R. New, Journal of Insect Conservation, Vol. 20, 2016)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Matthew L. Forister is an evolutionary ecologist in the Biology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received a BA in Englishwriting from the University of San Francisco, spent 2 years with the Peace Corps in Ukraine, and then earned a PhD in ecology from UC Davis. He studies herbivory, diversity, and hybridization, and has worked with different plants, animals, and fungi across temperate and tropical ecosytems, but particularly loves the blues, coppers, and hairstreaks (family Lycaenidae) and their humble but fascinating caterpillars and the ants that keep them safe. When not chasing butterflies, he favors old novels, the mountains of the Great Basin, and hanging out on the porch with his family, Beth and Catalina.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Lives of Lepidopterists
Editors: Lee A. Dyer, Matthew L. Forister
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20457-4
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-20456-7Published: 08 December 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-79304-7Published: 21 March 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-20457-4Published: 01 December 2015
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 273
Number of Illustrations: 18 b/w illustrations, 98 illustrations in colour
Topics: Popular Life Sciences, Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography, Entomology, Applied Ecology