In Butterfly Biology Systems Roger Dennis explores key topics and contentious issues in butterfly biology, specifically those in life history and behaviour. Uniquely, using a systems approach, the book focuses on the degree of integration and feedback between components and elements affecting each issue, as well as the links between different issues. The book comprises four sections. The first two sections introduce the reader to principles and approaches for investigating complex relationships, and provide a platform of knowledge on butterfly biology. The final two sections deal in turn with life history and behaviour, covering key issues affecting different stages of development from eggs to adults. The book is extensively illustrated with original diagrams and models, all of which have detailed legends, produced to enhance a broader understanding, and to provide templates for future research. It includes a detailed bibliography and glossary providing an essential gateway to the extensive literature on butterfly biology. Butterfly Biology Systems is essential reading for graduate students and researchers in insect ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation. It will also be of great value to anyone interested in butterflies. Introduces a systems approach to butterfly biology Includes succinct reviews of the key interrelationships in butterfly life history and behaviour Illustrates more than 100 models to advance research into butterfly biology systems

Islands are special places; they can be havens for unique plants and animals and refuges for wildlife. This book investigates the biogeography of butterfly species over the British islands, particularly the factors that influence their presence on the islands and that have made each island's butterfly fauna distinctive. The book contains a full log of records of species on the islands and much supporting information. The first three chapters set the scene, illustrating the basics of island biogeography theory, their changing circumstances during the current Holocene interglacial, and studies of natural history of British butterflies that mark the islands as the most intensively studied region for wildlife in the world. The book advances by increasing resolution downscale from a European continental perspective, through patterns and changes on the British mainland, a comparison of the two dominant islands of Britain and Ireland, to a close inspection of the dynamics of species on the multitude of offshore islands. Detailed investigations include contrasts in species' richness on the islands and then of the incidences of each species. Case studies highlight the continual turnover of species on islands. Attention is then given to evolutionary changes since the time that glaciers enveloped Europe. A powerful message is conveyed for the maintenance of butterfly species on the smaller British islands now experiencing population losses at a rate unprecedented since the spread of the last ice sheets: the incontrovertible importance of maintaining populations of species on nearby mainland sources for islands as pools for future migrants.

This new book offers a full-scale treatment of British butterfly ecology. We have not had a comparable source-book for many years, and now it comes at a time when many butterfly populations worldwide, including about half the British species, are in decline. The authors bring together new ideas, facts, and figures from recent studies to discuss individual butterfly behaviour and adaptations; population dynamics, community structure, distributions, and habitats; and the underlying genetics and evolutionary pathways. The last chapter focuses on conservation. Information is presented in considerable detail, and the volume includes an extensive glossary, full bibliography, many tables, appendices on hostplants and habitats, and more than ninety figures. Students of butterflies, ecology, and natural history will find it an invaluable reference tool as well as a benchmark in ecological studies. The authors are well known for their work in research, conservation, and education. They are: Roger Dennis, Tim Shreeve, Keith Shreeve, Keith Porter, Martin Warren, Paul Brakefield, Jeremy Thomas, and Caroline Steel. Derek Whiteley prepared the figures.