Beautifully illustrated and clearly presented, The Butterflies of Canada is an indispensable guide to all aspects of butterfly study. Butterfly collecting has long been a popular summer activity, and as the growing popularity of butterfly watching and conservatories in Ontario and British Columbia shows, butterflies are a continuing source of delight and interest to Canadians.

The Butterflies of Canada is the first comprehensive guide to all the butterflies found in Canada. Based on the national butterfly collection maintained by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, it contains descriptive individual accounts for the close to three hundred butterfly species recorded in Canada, including descriptions of early stages, subspecies, and key features that help distinguish similar species. Each species of butterfly has an individual distribution map, generated from a database of more than 90,000 location records.

More than just a field guide to identifying Canadian butterflies, however, The Butterflies of Canada includes chapters on Canadian geography and butterfly distribution, conservation, gardening, photography, and the history of butterfly study in Canada. It also contains new and unpublished information on the classification of butterflies, their ranges, larval food plants, abundance, flight seasons, and noteworthy habits. Thirty two colour plates provide diagnostic details for each species, and also feature butterflies in their natural habitats. There is an extensive bibliography.

Ross A. Layberry has been building a database of butterfly distribution in Canada since 1985, now at over 90,000 records.

Ross Layberry's profile page

Peter W. Hall is presently Acting Director General, Strategies asnd Planning Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

Peter Hall's profile page

J. Donald Lafontaine is a research scientist at the Research Branch of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, where he has worked in the Lepidoptera Unit in the Canadian National Collection of insects (CNC) for the past twenty-six years.

Don Lafontaine's profile page

"The Butterflies of Canada is at once a field guide, a butterfly life-history reference, a coffee table book, a source for encouraging further study, and perhaps a benchmark for other future natural history publications. Both casual and serious naturalists will enjoy this book as an addition to their ever-growing libraries.'

The Victoria Naturalist

'Even those who don't have lepidopterist leanings will find it hard not to admire the lively colour and visual appeal the photographs of butterflies offer.'

Quill & Quire

"All in all, an indispensable feast of feathery little beasts.'

Globe & Mail