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| Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America (Kaufman Field Guides) | 
| Authors: Kenn Kaufman, Eric R. Eaton
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $10.84
You Save: $8.11 (43%)
New (28) from $10.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 5906
Media: Turtleback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 392
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 4.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0618153101
Dewey Decimal Number: 595.7097
EAN: 9780618153107
ASIN: 0618153101
Publication Date: February 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New, unread, unused and in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages, may have a remainder mark.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Curious about insects? This is the essential guide May 5, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
A decade ago, at least 90,000 species of insects had been recorded north of Mexico and tens of thousands remained undescribed. Clearly a comprehensive field guide is out of the question. The only other one-volume guide to North American insects on my shelves is Borror & White's Peterson Field Guide A Field Guide to Insects which, having been published in 1970, is getting rather long in the tooth. Nevertheless, it has done a stalwart job and remains the only guide to give a detailed systematic overview of North American insects, relying on concise text and monochrome and coloured plates to achieve this. Although the chances of putting a specific name on your given insect are slim, this guide will usually get you to the correct order - often family.
The Kaufman Guide comes as a welcome refresher with a slightly different philospohy. The authors use an approach which is slightly less rigid and much more visual. They follow Kaufman's previous guides (Birds, Butterflies) in using digitally-enhanced photographs - 2,350 of them! - to illustrate their subject. The user will either flick through the book, or use the 4-page "Pictorial keys" at the beginning to find the type of insect they are dealing with, hopefully keying in on a specific matching photograph to identify it. A short text on the facing page should confirm identification and may provide additional information on natural history.
This is definitely the guide beginners will want to acquire, but it should find a place on every naturalist's bookshelf. Highly recommended.
Chris Sharpe, 5 May 2008. ISBN: 0618153101
 Kaufmann Guide covers a lot of ground April 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Kaufmann Field Guide to Insects covers an impossible amount of subject matter, and does it well. It will certainly get you close enough to an ID to follow through on the Net, Google it, and find out more. The photos are clear enough, and the examples diverse enough to make it very usable when you're in the field, and find something you weren't looking for in the first place. A purchase I have enjoyed, and one I would do again. Certainly a good present for anyone living in rural areas, and most suburban locations.
Very nice insect guide April 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very nice guide to insects. It is easy to thumb through to find information and identification, even if you are not an entomologist.
Easy to use March 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For the beginning "bug" photographer, this book makes it easy to find what it is I just photographed. It doesn't need to be an all encompassing book on the insect, I just need to know what it is, and will it kill me if it bites me?
Like everyone here, I too have access to the internet, and the wealth of information that's out there on insects. But as a general book to be used to try and identify them this book makes it very easy.
I also have the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders (Audubon Society Field Guide) Which gives more information on the insects, but you have to flip back and forth from the "Photo" pages to the "Info" pages in the back. The Kaufman book puts the info and the photos side by side which is nice.
Binding is a flexible plastic covering card-stock which does well in a backpack, and is waterproof.
Best in class December 8, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I see several reviews that indicate that information is lacking in this field guide. Well, it's a FIELD guide to the insects of North America. This is quite a daunting task. When I ordered this book, I was dubious that this book could fill this niche any better than any of the other field guide sized books on insects of this huge region. I was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion, this guide does an excellent job of covering species one is likely to encounter, but also representatives of strange or unusual species. Yes, it's a little skimpy on detailed information, but that is what is required in bringing a survey of biodiversity this variable to the field. As far as I know, there are no guides of any kind that provide range maps for all these (some little known) taxa. Yes, some well-known groups have useful range maps, but these are guides (and sometimes full-sized books) that deal with a single order of insects.
If you want a book small enough to take into the field, with an excellent representation of images for this highly diverse group of animals, this is the best I've used. Or, if you want an inexpensive and accessible resource to identify that brown, six-legged thing in your bath tub, this might be what you're looking for. If you are looking for a comprehensive reference on the diversity of insect life in North America, with images, range maps, keys, natural history, etc...., keep looking and let me know when you find one.
I'm not an entomologist, but have completed graduate course work in entomology.
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