London: Natural History Museum, 2003. Large octavo, paperback, colour photographs.

Part of the Life Series, Natural History Museum Butterflies starts with the familiar life cycle, charting development from egg to adult, mating and egg-laying. It continues by exploring less familiar aspects of the butterfly life-style: how they care for their eggs, the surprising things that some caterpillars eat, what happens inside the caterpillar to create the butterfly; why is it that there are so many variations in adult wing pattern and colour. These and many more questions are raised in this examination of the butterfly, which concludes by considering the threats and opportunities now faced by them. Butterflies offers an overview of the biology and diversity of this, the major group of day-flying Lepidoptera.