Book reviews by Adalbert Goertz:
(4293 Deerfield Hills Road, Colorado Springs CO 80916-3505)

Heiko Bellmann: Der neue Kosmos-Insektenfuehrer, Frankh-Kosmos Verlag,
Stuttgart, Germany, 1999, ISBN 3-440-07682-2, 446 pp.,
price EUR 20.35 = DM 39.80

Frankk-Kosmos has a long tradition of publications on natural history.
I used to subscribe to their Kosmos monthly magazine from 1946 on
(which is still on my bookshelf). This pocket-size insect field guide
tops them all by its quality color pictures (more than 1400 of them)
covering many insect and a few arachnoid species of central Europe.
After a brief introduction on body structure, metamorphosis, references,
amd a glossary the author describes each species with
Kennzeichen (special marks), Vorkommen (habitat), and Wissenswertes
(things worth knowing like foods)
The pages on the orders have various colored page margins for easier
finding.
The German species index includes scientific names.
The foreign reader will get a good sampling of insects groups which
he will recognize from observations in his backyard.
I have not seen anything like it on the American market.

---------

Heiko Bellmann: Bienen, Wespen, Ameisen, Hautfluegler Mitteleuropas,
Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, 1995, ISBN 3-440-06932-X,
over 400 colorphotos, 336 pp., price EUR             29.65 = DM 58

This pocket size book is another field guide in the Kosmos-Naturfuehrer
series which covers bees, wasps, and ants - Hymenoptera of Central
Europe and mostly Aculeata.
Whereas a previous guide by J.Zahradnik in the same series
uses color hand drawings to illustrate, Bellmann uses color photos
of the specimens in their natural habitat, nest or inside larval
domicile.  Each species is described as to
Kennzeichen (markings), Flugzeit (when on the wing), Lebensraum (habitat),
Verbreitung (geographic distribution), Lebensweise (way of life),
Aehnliche Arten (similar species), Gefaerdung (endangered species status).
The North American reader has yet to see a field guide of hymenoptera
which would give him a quick idea of what he sees in the field. This guide
is the next best book to have for North America.
Whenever I want to identify an Aculeatum in Colorado, this is the
field guide I use first before consulting other books to make my choices.
The book ends with references and a German/scientific species index.


--
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