United States
£ GBP
Language: English with bilingual summaries in English and Spanish
Together, Mesoamerica and the Isthmus of Panama harbour one of the highest insect species concentrations on Earth. Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica: selected studies aims to acquaint the entomologist, student, and interested layman with selected groups of neotropical insects, and to kindle more interest in the study and conservation of that rich yet fragile biological realm. The 42 chapters, pertaining to 20 insect orders (plus the springtails) and the geology and biogeography of the area, were prepared by 52 biologists whose viewpoints range from natural history, to detailed ecological studies, to taxonomic treatments. Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica: Selected Studies introduces the majority of the smaller insect orders, as well as diverse groups within larger orders. It is illustrated by more than 1260 line drawings, distribution maps, and black and white photographs. A set of abstracts in English and Spanish is provided at the end of Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica: Selected Studies. This is the first work to focus on the insect fauna of Mesoamerica and Panama since the exclusively systematic major opus, Biologia Centrali-Americana, published at the end of the last century.
Edited by Diomedes Quintero, Director, Museo de Invertebrados G.B. Fairchild, University of Panama, and Annette Aiello, Research Associate in Entomology, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
"a reference book of fundamental importance for all those interested in any of the groups of insects of the Isthmus or the surrounding regions"
- Salvatore Carfì, Università di Firenze, Tropical Zoology, 7:223, 1994
"a major contribution to our understanding of a few groups of importance in the biota of the area [...] all articles provide good information [...] Introductory chapters place the fauna in context geologically and geographically; these chapters alone make the book worth picking up for perusal [...] perhaps begins an important modern series of contributions in an easy-to-use format [...] an important contribution to entomology and the Mesoamerican area."
- Terry L. Erwin, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 69
