Butterflies of Vietnam: An Illustrated Checklist

Excellent small book on the butterflies of Vietnam, professionally produced with good colour photographs and well organised text. There is an introduction, and notes on the checklist, followed by the checklist, which gives latin names and north/south location within Vietnam, followed by the colour plates (photographs).Since the publication of the first edition of this checklist our knowledge on the butterfly fauna of Vietnam has been significantly enriched through intensive studies carried out by national and international entomologists. A new checklist on butterfly fauna of Vietnam is the result of multi-faceted scientific works including the discovery of species previously unknown to the country; more precise identification of species and subspecies; updating of the butterfly ranges; description of new taxa and preparation of taxonomical revisions.The number of butterfly species recorded in Vietnam and shown on the current checklist has increased considerably; from 992 to 1181 species. This latter figure is not merely a result of summation; for example, some species are added to the second edition as entirely new records for the country. One group of species has been removed from the first edition list where they were inserted erroneously due to citation works containing misidentifications. Other changes are due to changing taxonomy as a result of recent revisions. In some cases, the status of taxa has been raised from subspecies to species and, conversely, the status of others has been reduced from species to subspecies.