Welcome to...   

This site provides reader resources, additional articles and links to sites about butterfly biology and conservation around the world in support of the book A World for Butterflies: their lives, behavior and future by Phil Schappert. Regardless of whether you have a copy of the book, welcome and please feel free to browse around the site. Please do take the time to sign the guestbook and let me know your thoughts, good or bad, about the book, the site and the subject at hand...

Is there A World for Butterflies?

The Book

A World for Butterflies is a profusely illustrated primer on butterfly biology and insect conservation. To illuminate the plight of insects in general the book examines the lives and conservation issues faced by the "charismatic megafauna" of the insect world, the butterflies. Five chapters introduce butterflies and insect conservation, and consider their diversity, their worldwide distribution, their day-to-day lives and intriguing behaviors, and conservation issues specific to butterflies and other insects.

With 320 pages and more than 300 beautiful full-color photos of butterflies in nature, taken by some of the world's finest butterfly photographers, the book provides insight into the lives and behaviors of these fascinating creatures. By examining the forces—both good and bad—acting on them and their immature stages we learn that our knowledge of most insects is woefully incomplete. How do we conserve what we do not know?

Included in this section of the site are:

• Editions. Information on the available editions of the book, including publisher contact and purchasing information, and links to online ordering.
• Resources. Including contact information and links to butterfly clubs, lepidoptera organizations and entomological societies and equipment suppliers around the world, information and links to other sites containing information about endangered butterflies, an expanded book index and links to butterfly houses, wildflower resources and gardens, butterfly festivals and articles at other sites.
• Articles. A few excerpts from the book with additional articles on the origin of butterfly names and naming, extending and applying the concepts of "A Butterflies World" to specific cases, and more...
• Errata. Corrections to the text or photo captions in the various editions of the book.
• Photographers. Links to the home pages and web sites of many of the book's wonderful photographers.

The Author

Phil Schappert received his doctorate, with distinction, in Biology at York University in Toronto, Canada. He has taught ecology and conservation biology, conducted research on plant/butterfly interactions at York University and the University of Texas at Austin, edited the News of the Lepidopterists' Society, managed the Stengl "Lost Pines" Biological Station for UT Austin, has authored a number of magazine articles and scientific papers about butterflies and their host plants, and is also the author of Monarch Butterflies: Saving the King of the New World. He and his wife, Pat, currently live in Halifax, NS.