Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History

This is probably one of the most useful and complete field guides, in any category, I have ever used. The 1000 plus photographs alone, are of such quality that they become almost works of art. Clear and very usable. I do a tremendous amount of photography of wildlife, flowere, insects, snakes, and all sorts of other critters. This is one of the field guides I always have handy, as it makes identification so very, very much easier. The book is well designed in that it is rather easy to find what you are looking for. Like another reviewer, I might suggest you go ahead and get the hard cover as it will last longer and this is certainly a book you will be using a lot if this is in an area of your interest. I do wish that all field guides, not matter what genre, could be of this quality and usefulness. Recommend this one quite highly.

Moth caterpillars are more numerous (moth species outnumber butterfly species 10 to one), but books to help you identify these are rare to say the least, and most of those that do cover moths as well as butterflies are both very technical and expensive. "Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History" fills the need (for the eastern part of the continent at least) for a reasonably comprehensive guide to both moth and butterfly larvae, with the moths not shortchanged. It can be helpful to a degree in the west as well, but I hope a western guide will soon grace the book stores. We still have no Peterson guide to western moths to match the eastern one! The color photos are beautiful and the text informative. A perfect book to help the naturalist or anybody who is curious about the "worms" in their garden. I recommend it highly.

This is a terrific field guide. 700 species of caterpillars of butterflies and moths are represented. All the moth caterpillars that you can't find anywhere else are in this book! Great photos, good organization. Lots of other helpful information is included, like habitat, common food plants, geographic distribution, and when they occur. Highly Recommended!

David Wagner's "Caterpillars of Eastern North America" is FANTASTIC. It is WONDERFUL. It is a MUST addition to your libraries. It's almost enough to make botanists give up plants and start looking for caterpillars. It's almost enough to make Auduboners give up bird watching and start looking for caterpillars. I am not kidding. I've already used it to identify the Canadian owlet, Calyptra canadensis, larvae eating the meadow rue in the prairie. It is an amazing book with great photos and plenty of information. I cannot believe the amount of time, effort and work that went into this book. I "must" find some slug caterpillars. Buy this book and you won't have to turn on the TV for weeks!