Bees are vital for the future of the planet, for without their dedicated pollinating skills many crops would eventually fail. This delightfully illustrated book is a homage to bees, revealing many facets of their lives, including homes, flight patterns and defence. It also describes how to attract bees to your garden and, essentially, the art of talking to them! The lives of bees are interwoven with our own, but how much do you know about them? Which scents do bees prefer? How do bees transport pollen? How far can bees fly? Do specific colours attract bees? Do bees prefer native flowers? Then there is honey - a near-miraculous elixir that in earlier generations was an integral part of life as a sweetener and food preserver. It can be fermented with water and yeast to create mead, a drink that has been enjoyed for thousands of years. This book is dedicated to bees and to ensuring that they continue to live in harmony with humans in bee-friendly gardens. Click on the image to look inside:

A beautifully illustrated and thoroughly engaging cultural history of beekeeping - packed with anecdote, humour and enriching historical detail. The perfect gift. "A charming look at the history of beekeeping, from myth and folklore to our practical relationship with bees" Gardens Illustrated "An entertaining collation of bee trivia across the millennia" Daily Telegraph * Sweden's Gardening Book of the Year 2019 * Shortlisted for the August Prize 2019 * Winner of the Swedish Book Design Award for 2019 Beekeeper and garden historian Lotte Moeller explores the activities inside and outside the hive while charting the bees' natural order and habits. With a light touch she uses her encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject to shed light on humanity's understanding of bees and bee lore from antiquity to the present. A humorous debunking of the myths that have held for centuries is matched by a wry exploration of how and when they were replaced by fact. In her travels Moeller encounters a trigger-happy Californian beekeeper raging against both killer bees and bee politics, warring beekeepers on the Danish island of Laeso, and Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey, breeder of the Buckfast queen now popular throughout Europe and beyond, as well a host of others as passionate as she about the complex world of apiculture both past and present. Translated from the Swedish by Frank Perry

Introduces readers to the roles of butterflies in world ecosystems, as well as threats to butterfly populations and conservation efforts. Eye-catching infographics, clear text, and a "That's Amazing!" feature make this book an engaging exploration of the importance of butterflies.

Beautifully illustrated and approachable, this is the only California-specific, statewide book devoted to all groups of insects. Completely revised for the first time in over 40 years, Field Guide to California Insects now includes over 600 insect species, each beautifully illustrated with color photographs. Engaging accounts focus on distinguishing features, remarkable aspects of biology, and geographical distribution in the state. An accessible and compact introduction to identifying, understanding, and appreciating these often unfamiliar and fascinating creatures, this guide covers insects that readers are likely to encounter in homes and natural areas, cities and suburbs, rural lands and wilderness. It also addresses exotic and invasive species and their impact on native plants and animals. Field Guide to California Insects remains the definitive portable reference and a captivating read for beginners as well as avid naturalists.

Insects boast incredible diversity, and this book treats an important component of the western insect biota that has not been summarized before - moths and their plant relationships. There are about 8,000 named species of moths in our region, and although most are unnoticed by the public, many attract attention when their larvae create economic damage: eating holes in woolens, infesting stored foods, boring into apples, damaging crops and garden plants, or defoliating forests.In contrast to previous North American moth books, this volume discusses and illustrates about 25 per cent of the species in every family, including the tiny species, making this the most comprehensive volume in its field. With this approach it provides access to microlepidoptera study for biologists as well as amateur collectors. About 2,500 species are described and illustrated, including virtually all moths of economic importance, summarizing their morphology, taxonomy, adult behavior, larval biology, and life cycles.

With their beautiful wing patterns and colours butterflies immediately catch our attention. Of all creatures, they exemplify metamorphosis with the creeping caterpillar transforming into a soaring butterfly. But they have also come to be creatures of science, revealing much to biologists about evolution and the ecological processes and historical accidents that have generated the diversity of life on Earth.In Butterflies leading expert Dick Vane-Wright provides a complete introduction to the biology, natural history and classification of this major group. Using examples from around the world and eye-catching photographs, he explores what it means to be a butterfly, from how the yellow birdwing finds a mate to why the African gaudy commodores produce adults of different colours.Fully revised and updated with new photographs and the latest reserach, this reformatted edition offers an overview of the biology and diversity of the major group of day-flying Lepidoptera.