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Much ado about mothing : a year intoxicated by Britain's rare and remarkable moths / James Lowen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London : Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2021Description: 384 pages, 8 pages unnumbered plates : color illustrations ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781472966971
  • 147296697X
  • 9781472966988
  • 1472966988
Subject(s):
Contents:
Prologue -- The winter garden... and beyond -- Cats, tracks and caves -- The spring garden : leaves, twigs and bird craps -- (What's the story) Kentish Glory? -- Why H is for Hawk-moth too -- The Clearwing King... dethroned -- If small is beautiful, how gorgeous is tiny? -- Dry zone -- Wetsuit -- Sylvan secrets -- All the moths look the same -- The summer garden.. and its lost souls -- Life's a beach -- Rock and a hard place -- Heather -- New arrivals, welcome? -- Winged wanderers -- Perfect blue -- The autumn garden... of memes and leaves -- Southern comfort.
Summary: Although mostly unseen by us, moths are everywhere. And their capacity to delight astounds. Inspired by a revelatory encounter with a Poplar Hawk-moth a huge, velvety-winged wonder wrapped in silver James Lowen embarks on a year-long quest to celebrate the joy of Britain's rarest and most remarkable moths. By hiking up mountains, wading through marshes and roaming by night amid ancient woodlands, James follows the trails of both Victorian collectors and present-day conservationists. Seeking to understand why they and many ordinary folk love what the general public purports to hate, his investigations reveal a heady world of criminality and controversy, derring-do and determination. From Cornwall to the Cairngorms, James explores British landscapes to coax these much-maligned creatures out from the cover of darkness and into the light. Moths are revealed to be attractive, astonishing and approachable; capable of migratory feats and camouflage mastery, moths have much to tell us on the state of the nation's wild and not-so-wild habitats. As a counterweight to his travels, James and his young daughter track the seasons through a kaleidoscope of moth species living innocently yet covertly in their suburban garden. Without even leaving home, they bond over a shared joy in the uncommon beauty of common creatures, for perhaps the greatest virtue of moths, we learn, is their accessibility. Moths may be everywhere, but above all, they are here. Quite unexpectedly, no animals may be better placed to inspire the environmentalists of the future.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 595.7809 L917 Available 33111010758817
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book narrates a year­-long quest to see Britain's rarest and most remarkable moths.

This book coaxes moths out from the darkness and into the daylight; Much Ado About Moth-ing reveals that moths are so much more attractive, approachable and astonishing than butterflies--with richer tales to share, from migratory feats through mastery of camouflage to missives about the state of our planet. This book seeks to persuade the skeptical, the fearful and the unaware of the unexpected beauty of these misjudged insects.

The author, James Lowen, makes a case for moths by recounting a suitcase full of journeys across Britain over the course of a calendar year. Britain has a lot of moths--40 times more species than butterflies--so rather than try to see them all, James pursues quality over quantity, prioritizing our scarcest and most special species. His travels extend from the Isles of Scilly to northernmost Scotland. More than any other animals, moths demonstrate a very precise determination of place - one species, for example, rarely ventures more than 10 meters from the place it hatches as a caterpillar. Accordingly, this book drinks in the landscapes where moths reside. It's also a book about people--James meets moth­-fans wherever he goes, be they expert entomologists, professional conservationists or amateur "moth­-ers." He asks why they love what many people choose to hate, and how moths impact their lives. Through the filter of moths, he explores the concept of obsession, both in other people and, as the year progresses, in himself. This will be a book not just about moths, or about moths and place--but about moths and place and people.

A counterweight to James's expeditionary travels is his suburban garden. James and his young daughter measure the seasons by the moths that come and go, for perhaps the greatest virtue of moths--paradoxically, for those who consider them invisible--is their accessibility. Moths are everywhere, but above all they are here, and what's more, they'll sit calmly on a fingertip, providing first­-hand amazement to children and adults alike like no other animal.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 372-373).

Prologue -- The winter garden... and beyond -- Cats, tracks and caves -- The spring garden : leaves, twigs and bird craps -- (What's the story) Kentish Glory? -- Why H is for Hawk-moth too -- The Clearwing King... dethroned -- If small is beautiful, how gorgeous is tiny? -- Dry zone -- Wetsuit -- Sylvan secrets -- All the moths look the same -- The summer garden.. and its lost souls -- Life's a beach -- Rock and a hard place -- Heather -- New arrivals, welcome? -- Winged wanderers -- Perfect blue -- The autumn garden... of memes and leaves -- Southern comfort.

Although mostly unseen by us, moths are everywhere. And their capacity to delight astounds. Inspired by a revelatory encounter with a Poplar Hawk-moth a huge, velvety-winged wonder wrapped in silver James Lowen embarks on a year-long quest to celebrate the joy of Britain's rarest and most remarkable moths. By hiking up mountains, wading through marshes and roaming by night amid ancient woodlands, James follows the trails of both Victorian collectors and present-day conservationists. Seeking to understand why they and many ordinary folk love what the general public purports to hate, his investigations reveal a heady world of criminality and controversy, derring-do and determination. From Cornwall to the Cairngorms, James explores British landscapes to coax these much-maligned creatures out from the cover of darkness and into the light. Moths are revealed to be attractive, astonishing and approachable; capable of migratory feats and camouflage mastery, moths have much to tell us on the state of the nation's wild and not-so-wild habitats. As a counterweight to his travels, James and his young daughter track the seasons through a kaleidoscope of moth species living innocently yet covertly in their suburban garden. Without even leaving home, they bond over a shared joy in the uncommon beauty of common creatures, for perhaps the greatest virtue of moths, we learn, is their accessibility. Moths may be everywhere, but above all, they are here. Quite unexpectedly, no animals may be better placed to inspire the environmentalists of the future.

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