Updated Conservation Classic

Abstract

Insect Diversity Conservation. Samways, M. J. 2005. Cambridge University Press, New York. 353 pp. (xi + 342). $55.00 (paperback). ISBN 0-521-78947-8. In the preface, the author tells us that his goal for Insect Diversity Conservation is to provide an "overview and critically appraise the conservation of insect diversity." In the publisher's flyleaf, however, we are told that the intended audience for this book includes "undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, and managers both in conservation biology and entomology and in the wider biological and environmental sciences." Although the audience as described might simply represent the publisher trying to sell books, a critical appraisal of sufficient depth is incompatible with such a broadly defined audience. We believe that, ultimately, this book fails to provide the critical appraisal of interest to postgraduates, researchers, and managers, but may serve an audience of undergraduates if supplemented with more detailed case studies drawn from the primary literature. Insect Diversity Conservation appears to be an updated and reorganized version of Samways' earlier book Insect Conservation Biology published in 1994. Springer, New York). It is divided into three sections: part I—"The Need for Insect Diversity Conservation," part II—"Insects and the Changing World," and part III—"Conserving and Managing Insect Diversity." Part I predominantly provides background information on insect biology at a depth that would only serve undergraduates. Chapter 1, however, on the ethical foundations of insect conservation, could usefully have been recast and relocated in the final chapter on social issues in insect conservation. A major issue in insect conservation is changing human attitudes about insects. Such an attitude change may be facilitated by education on the ethical and moral ideas described in this chapter.