Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula; The (4th ed)

The first edition, published in Kuala Lumpur in 1934, was a slim volume dealing with the commoner Malayan butterflies. The death of H.M. Pendlebury in 1945 left Dr Steven Corbet as sole author of the second edition, which was completely rewritten and much enlarged to include every Malaya butterfly known at that time. It was base on an exhaustive study of almost all the extant collections of Malayan butterflies, ranging from that made by J.G. Koenig (a pupil of Linnaeus) in 1779 to those made in prison camps and behind the enemy lines during the Japanese occupation. Dr Corbet’s untimely death in 1948 left the book incomplete, but under the editorship of his friend N.D. Riley, Keeper of the Entomological Department of the British Museum (Natural History), it was published in 1956. The third edition, published by the Malayan Nature Society in 1978, was revise by Lt. Col. J.N. Eliot in the light of taxonomic work done in the years following Dr. Corbet’s death. Now, 13 years later, as a result of new knowledge arising out of the increasing interest in butterflies throughout S.E. Asia, a new edition is due. Every species of butterfly known to occur in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore described in the text or identified in the accompanying keys, and illustrated by or or more figures. In addition there is profusion of line drawings featuring venation, genitalia and other structural characters. The 64 colour plates were take by the distinguished photographer and author, Bernard D’Abrera. Mention is made of other species occurring in the region which may be found in future in the Peninsula. Naturalists should be able now, with the aid of this volume, to identify any butterfly met with in the Peninsula, and they will also learn how much is known of their life histories.