Colour illustrated end-papers (butterflies); titles, preface, introduction, checklist of species, glossary & abbreviations to front. Here for the first time is a comprehensive guide to European butterflies, illustrated throughout in colour. The book covers every species and important subspecies or form in Europe west of the Russian frontier, in western North Africa, in Madeira the Canaries and the Azores. For each are given its names: details of size, markings, characters important for identification; flight months, habitat, food-plants, altitude, range, distribution and rarity; other species with which it might be confused; and references to its illustration and its map. There is also an excellent introduction to the whole subject; a glossary, check-list, selective bibliography and index. The superb colour plates illustrate at life size and in fine detail over 750 butterflies - the 381 species of the area and every important subspecies, sex and brood form. In each figure the left-hand part shows the upper-side, the right-hand part the underside. Opposite each plate is a caption-page, giving notes for identification and a page-reference to the text description.