An Obsession With Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair With A Singular Insect

I picked up this slim volume for a quick read and was treated to a meditation on the subject of butterfly species, as well as the insect and plant world. The book overflows with information, but the wealth of details never seems dry or textbookish. I laughed out loud at times with the insights about the subject's mating and survival behaviors revealed with wonderfully wry comparisons to everyday events. I'm left with the feeling that while seemingly a fluke of nature ("if all butterflies disappeared so would a few flowers-but not many"), the butterfly fits in nature's web through complex relationships with the plants and insects that inhabit its domain: Ants that become the children to the caterpillar's Pied Piper and plants whose leaves mimic the appearance of ones that have been ravaged by the caterpillar. And perhaps, most telling our own relationship to these singular creatures: as eccentrics, as collectors, as art appreciators, as naturalists, and as scientists. I count myself among a select group of those who have taken the time to learn about the natural world from the point of view of the butterfly. This is the rare book that is greater than the sum of the details due to the author's exceptional, wide-angle approach to a multifaceted puzzle. A pleasure to read for the humor and insight.

Before reading An Obsession with Butterflies, a butterfly was something that caught my attention as it flitted across a meadow. Russell's beautiful writing and in-depth research makes high level science accessible while still keeping the focus on the wonder of nature. This book not only increased my knowledge about the life events and diversity of butterflies but gave me insight into the what butterflies have meant to mankind across cultures and to individuals both obsessed and enthralled with these beautiful creatures. This is a great book for expanding your perspective on many fronts.

I love this book! Where else would I learn that most butterflies taste with their feet, that a stage of caterpillar life is an "instar," and that ghost plants really do exist? As a poet, I appreciate the rhythm of Russell's lines. I learned not only about butterflies but also about the eccentric characters, Lepidopterists, that explore the world in search of new species. However, it is the way Russell connects us with the Painted Lady and the sex life of the Sharp Whites that I most admire. She bridges our daily lives with that of artful instruments of flight in such a way that we can't help but be changed for the better by the wisdom this book brings. An Obsession with Butterflies makes me glad to be alive.

I thoroughly loved this book - it had interesting butterfly information, stories from the early times of butterfly collecting, and other great insights. It usually takes me awhile to read books due to usually being exhausted after work and only getting through a few pages per night but this one I just couldn't put down. I admit it, I do have an obsession with butterflies, but that goes for all of nature and the gifts of mother earth - so the subject matter was right up my alley. It gives good history and good interesting facts about butterflies. Loved it!

We generally do not like insects; when they come to our notice, it is usually because they irritate, pain, or impoverish us. But everyone loves butterflies, and everyone has done so since early childhood. They are fascinating natural specimens, and their colors fill us with admiration and wonder. It isn't surprising that they have caused obsessions in many people in many centuries. In _An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect_ (Perseus Publishing), Sharman Apt Russell has packed some taxonomy of butterflies, and also biology, but also a history about the obsessed and a chronicle of butterfly culture. Russell reveals that she is obsessed herself, but her obsession translates into an enthusiastic and poetic look at science and history that is full of life and color.Anyone who reads this book will come away with admiration for the cleverness of tactics which evolution has given to butterflies. Caterpillars are especially vulnerable in a world that is out to get them; fungi, pathogens, wasps, ants, birds, and lizards all find caterpillars a tasty meal (oh, and humans, too). The Western Tiger Swallowtail's caterpillar is only a speck when it comes out of the egg, but as it grows and molts, it takes on the appearance of a bird's droppings. No one is interested in bird droppings. Caterpillars have enemies, but friends, too; some have developed a symbiosis with ant colonies. The butterflies get protection and nourishment, and the ants get honeydew secreted by the caterpillars. The color of butterflies may be enchanting to us, but like all the other characteristics of the insect, it is merely an evolutionary tool. Often males are more brightly colored than females; they are attracted to the drab coloration of females and repelled by the bright males, so that they spend their time with the right group to get the genes into the next generation. Darker colors help high altitude butterflies keep warm. Eyespots scare birds. Bright colors warn of unpalatability. Edible butterflies mimic toxic ones, and toxic ones mimic each other, just to make sure the birds got a clear message. It isn't just butterflies that are examined in this book; humans are pinned here, too. Lady Glanville sent cases and cases of butterfly specimens in the early eighteenth century for the naturalists to record and keep. When she died, the will was voided because she was thought to be insane over butterflies; she would beat the hedges for "a parcel of wormes," neighbors reported. One entomologist admitted, "None but those deprived of their Senses would go in Pursuit of butterflyes." Among those similarly deprived of their senses was Lord Walter Rothschild, who hired an army of professional species-stalkers to collect butterflies from all over the world. He donated over two million specimens to the British museum. His niece Miriam was famous for producing a six-volume inventory of her father's flea collection, but she demonstrated how