Butterflies
Of The Lower Rio Grande,
by Roland H. Wauer
Have you ever picked up a field guide or road
trip book and felt an immediate need to go and jump in the car
and head for the area being described? If so, you are going
to love this new book by Roland Wauer. Butterflies of the
Lower Rio Grande Valley is a full-color guide to the hundreds
of varieties of butterflies that can be found in the southern
Texas counties of Starr, Hidalgo, and Cameron near the Gulf
of Mexico. According to the author, this region is only one
of two semitropical regions of the continental United States
and is host to thousands of varieties of butterflies, birds
and animals. In my road trips, I have always been intrigued
whenever I saw migrating butterflies but I had no idea there
were so many and that the identification of them was as complex
as it is. So far, nearly three hundred species have been found
and identified in the lower Rio Grande Valley.
The author provides some tips for understanding
how the four features of butterfly identification (size,
shape, color and pattern) should be done. I found it interesting
that in many cases the only way to positively identify a particular
species is a careful and close-up examination of the butterfly
genitalia -- a process Wauer suggests should be reserved for
a professional lepidopterist. He also explained the benefits
of using close-focusing binoculars, which enables one to view
specimens at distances less than six feet. What I found to
be particularly useful is that the author provides detailed
suggestions for finding specific species and a section on
"similar species" that provides key features for
differentiating between one or more similar species. I also
really liked the checklist in the back of the book that readers
can use for keeping track of their own butterfly field trips.
One of the places I learned about in this
book is the NABA International Butterfly Park located near
the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. This 83-acre park,
the first facility of its kind in the world, was designed
to attract a huge variety of butterflies. It's one place I
hope to visit someday soon. The full-color photographs of
the hundreds of butterflies profiled in this book are excellent.
Some of my favorites include the Great Purple Hairstreak,
the amazingly colored the Guatemalan Cracker, and the large
assortment of Swallowtails. This very cool book is a great
resource for identifying butterflies on your next road trip
to southern Texas.
Mark
Sedenquist
5/15/05
|
