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Caterpillars of Eastern North America
By David L. Wagner
Princeton University Press, 2005
ISBN: 0691121435
Cite: 9479 with citation markup [cite:9479]
A Princeton field guide to identification and natural history. At almost 500 pages, it includes 700 species of caterpillars with over 1200 color photos.

Another not yet available guide to caterpillars. I'm slightly bummed because I had visions of creating my own field guide to caterpillars. Given the use my copy of a USDA guide coauthored by Wagner gets, I bet this one will be hard to beat.

Looks like it'll be available in August. Until then I'll just keep it on my Amazon wish list to remind me when the time comes.

Caterpillars of Eastern North America
Just received my copy from Amazon.
Great photos, most with a photo of a pinned adult.
No range maps but a text description of their range.

 
pinned leps
Hi Charles,

I am always disappointed to see the pinned adults. For one thing, they do not naturally hold their wings in that position. I know it is to show hind- and forewing, but you can also usually see where the thorax was squished in order to kill it :(

Did he use any "live" photos of John Himmelman's? He lives in CT and knows Wagner. I love seeing John's pics because they are how the moths appear in nature.

Will be ordering my copy (of Wagner's new book) soon and look forward to having it to add to my moth library.

 
pinned leps.
I do not believe that there any pictures of live moths but the caterpillar pictures are great.

 
no
No live pictures of adults. Remember that this guide is for caterpillars, not adults, so I don't care too much.

What about OTHER larvae?
Hey, Troy, don't give up the dream! One of the consistent pieces of feedback I got from naturalists when I was preparing to start "my" field guide was "show examples of immatures." Caterpillars aside, there are loads of other immature insects that are not yet addressed by a field guide. When you consider eggs, pupae, and nymphs, then you can go on almost exponentially. Sometimes we creative types forget to "think big." I was trying to sell an idea for a book on insects of the Pacific Northwest before I was asked to work on this field guide to insects of the entire continent:-)

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