Lord Howe Island has Australia's highest diversity and endemicity of land snails. These beautiful but vulnerable creatures are not as readily observed or as well understood as the bird or plant life of the island, but play a vital role in the terrestrial ecosystem. For the first time, the native and endemic land snails of Lord Howe Island are shown together in this illustrated guide, designed for anyone from enthusiastic nature lovers to land snail specialists. Features of the guide include a pictorial guide to families and a dichotomous key for easy identification, and detailed descriptions of each genus and species, including distribution maps and photographs of the shell and (where available) the live animal. All descriptive terms are explained and illustrated in the introductory material and in the glossary.
Australia has a rich diversity of phasmids – otherwise known as stick and leaf insects. Most of them are endemic, few have been studied and new species continue to be found. Stick insects are, by far, Australia’s longest insects – some of them reach up to 300 mm in body length, or more than half a metre if you include their outstretched legs. Many stick insects are very colourful, and some have quite elaborate, defensive behaviour. Increasingly they are being kept as pets. This is the first book on Australian phasmids for nearly 200 years and covers all known stick and leaf insects. It includes photographs of all species, notes on their ecology and biology as well as identification keys suitable for novices or professionals.
From the Foreword Umberto Quattrocchi has brought us some amazing and useful works through the various dictionaries that he has compiled. This time it is for two very important plant families the palms and the cycads that are synthesized here in these two volumes. Each entry is fascinating not just for the botany and full nomenclature of the plant species but for all the associated uses, folklore and interactions with other organisms. ...These entries are fascinating glimpses of natural history. ... Botanists, conservationists, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, geographers, bird watchers, naturalists, historians and those of many other disciplines will find these volumes a most valuable and useful resource. It is the sort of book that will be in frequent use in my library. ----- Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH, Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Following the same format as Umberto Quattrocchi’s highly praised and well-used previous works, The CRC World Dictionary of Palms: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology brings together the vast and scattered literature on palms and cycads to provide better access to information on these economically important plants. Each genus and species has a detailed morphological description and includes a list of synonyms and vernacular names in many languages. Bibliographies accompany each entry which are comprehensive, up-to-date and multi-lingual. The detailed information for every entry on habitats, economic uses, historical and biographical data, botanical exploration, and linguistics will be useful for any library involved with botany, herbal medicine, pharmacognosy, medicinal and natural product chemistry, ecology, ethnobotany, systematics, general plant science, agriculture or horticulture. Umberto Quattrocchi is the author of the bestselling CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, winner of the prestigious Hanbury Botanical Garden Award. His most recent multi-volume work, CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants, received strong praise as being "... an unparalleled starting place—a tool of first resort for any thoughtful researcher. Quattrocchi and CRC have delivered a dictionary like no other, a learned finger pointing in the right direction." —John de la Parra, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, from Economic Botany, Vol. 68, 2014
This 2001 book provides a selective annotated bibliography of the principal floras and related works of inventory for vascular plants. The second edition was completely updated and expanded to take into account the substantial literature of the late twentieth century, and features a more fully developed review of the history of floristic documentation. The works covered are principally specialist publications such as floras, checklists, distribution atlases, systematic iconographies and enumerations or catalogues, although a relatively few more popularly oriented books are also included. The Guide is organised in ten geographical divisions, with these successively divided into regions and units, each of which is prefaced with a historical review of floristic studies. In addition to the bibliography, the book includes general chapters on botanical bibliography, the history of floras, and general principles and current trends, plus an appendix on bibliographic searching, a lexicon of serial abbreviations, and author and geographical indexes.
Norfolk Island (South Pacific) has some of the world’s rarest plant species. Of the 182 native plant species, 43 are endemic; that is they occur naturally nowhere else, 47 are listed nationally under Australian law as extinct or threatened and 30 more are already extinct, threatened or rare on the island. This book provides information (with illustrations) on each of the native species and some of the most important introduced plants which grow wild on the island. It also contains a chapter on the cultural use of plants from 1856. The book has previously unpublished paintings by John Doody from 1792 and paintings by famous botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer from 1804 in addition to more than 400 photographs. 192 pages 170 x 227 mm, full colour, with references and index.
This is the first well illustrated guide to Australian Katydids aimed at a general readership. A Guide to the Katydids of Australia explores this diverse group of insects from the family Tettigoniidae, which comprises about 2000 species in Australia.
Fourth edition of a portable field guide which accompanies the fourth edition of TBirds of Australia'. Revised and expanded to include an illustrated rare bird bulletin, an Australian island territories checklist, 52 additional or replacement black-and-white drawings, and changes to 93 distribution maps. Also provides information on the taxonomy, habitat and biology of each bird family as well as covering such topics as prehistoric birds, and DNA-DNA hybridisation. Referenced and indexed.
This book tells the fascinating success story of saving the flightless Woodhen of Lord Howe Island. This unique large rail, an iconic and highly endangered Australian bird, was at the very brink of extinction with just 15 individuals found in 1980, when bold and risky actions were taken to save it. The book begins with the discovery and ecology of Lord Howe Island. It then details the history of the Woodhen, its place among the rails and their evolution of flightlessness, the planning, implementation and trials, tribulations and successes of the captive breeding programme and the way in which the wild population recovered. The ecology, behaviour and breeding biology of this unique flightless island rail are also discussed. The text is accompanied by numerous photographs and drawings. This is a story of survival, yet the bird remains highly endangered as it is under constant potential threat, which could tip it over the brink and to extinction. The Woodhen provides gripping insights into the potential for both losing and saving vertebrate species. Winner of a 2014 Whitley Awards Certificate of Commendation for Historical Zoology.
The types of plants and animals that live on seashores in temperate regions are similar around the globe, but many of the individual species in south-eastern Australia are found only in this region. Field Guide to the Seashores of South-Eastern Australia features colour photographs, descriptions and ecological notes for around 240 species of the more common plants and animals found on rocky, sandy and muddy shores along the coastline from Port Lincoln, South Australia, to the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales, and Tasmania. This guide will allow beachgoers to learn interesting details about the plants and animals they come across, while also having sufficient scientific detail for natural history enthusiasts and biology students to develop their understanding of these shore ecosystems.
As fascinating as they are beautiful, butterflies are a pleasure to watch and an important group of invertebrates to study. This second edition of the award-winning book The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia is a fully updated guide to all butterfly species on Australia's mainland and remote islands. Written by one of Australia's leading lepidopterists, the book is stunningly illustrated with colour photographs, many of which are new, of each of the 435 currently recognised species. There is also a distribution map and flight chart for each species on the Australian mainland, together with information on similar species, variation, behaviour, habitat, status and larval food plants. The introduction to the book covers adult structure, higher classification, distribution and habitats, as well as life cycle and behaviour. A new chapter on collecting and preserving butterflies is included. There is also an updated checklist of all species, a glossary, a bibliography and indexes of common and scientific names.
