The Insects of Australia (1973) & Supplement (1974)

A Textbook for Students and Research Workers plus the 1974 Supplement.

This book, extensively illustrated in colour and black and white, provides an authoritative treatment of the present knowledge of the Australian insect fauna.

As the only comprehensive work on the subject to appear in more than forty years, it is indispensable to professional entomologist and student alike.

The Australian fauna has been of absorbing interest to biologists throughout the world since European explorers began to take specimens in the late eighteenth century. Like the mammals and birds of the continent, the insects have their special features, but their affinities with the insect faunas of other countries more certainly indicate their origin on ancient land masses long since sundered by the stupendous processes of continental drift, and the later dispersal of some kinds over land bridges laid bare during glacial epochs.

Many Australian insects vie as pests with those unwittingly introduced by early settlers, and those that have also eluded the rigorous quarantine barriers of more recent years. Insects thus intruding on man's daily affairs usually receive detailed study, but neglect of the remainder would deny the world a great wealth of knowledge, perhaps forever, if the inexorable process of land development eliminates special habitats.

So many Australian insects exhibit interesting Or unique biological features that increased emphasis on their study is certain to be richly rewarding.

Incorporating the work of thirty authors and with 2,400 illustrations, this volume is sponsored and arranged by the Division of Entomology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.