''A Practical Handbook of British Beetles'' is a two-volume work on the British
beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
fauna, by
Norman H. Joy, first published by
H. F. & G. Witherby in January 1932.
Contents
Volume one (xxviii + 622 pages) consists of the text (largely a set of identification keys, with brief status notes for each species). Volume two (194 pages) contains 2040 line-drawings of whole beetles and features referred to in the keys (390 of these were taken from Spry and
Shuckard's 1840 publication ''The British Coleoptera Delineated'' but the remainder were drawn by Joy).
The book covers a fauna of about 3560 different species and has an emphasis on species identification, being "essentially a manual of identification for the use of collectors."
A reduced-size reprint was produced by
E. W. Classey in 1976, and again in 1997, while Pisces Conservation released an electronic version in 2009, solving a longstanding problem of availability.
Reception
One of the main points of attraction for Joy's book was its reasonable price. According to a 1932 review in
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
,
William Weekes Fowler
William Weekes Fowler (January 1849 – 3 June 1923 ) was an English clergyman and entomologist mainly interested in beetles.
Biography
Son of the Reverend Hugh Fowler, Vicar of Barnwood, Gloucestershire, Fowler was educated at Rugby School a ...
's standard work ''The Coleoptera of the British Islands'' (1887–1891, 1913) was "beyond the means of most students and collectors of insects", while ''A Practical Handbook'' offered a much more affordable option.
Legacy
''A Practical Handbook of British Beetles'' instantly became one of the important works on British coleoptera, already being referred to as a classic by the 1956
Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects
''Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects'' is a series of books produced by the Royal Entomological Society (RES). The aim of the Handbooks is to provide illustrated identification keys to the insects of Britain, together with concise ...
volume on beetles, which uses it as one of the major works to be cross-referenced.
Practical Handbook of British Beetles, A
Beetle literature
Despite its age, it has remained the standard work on the identification of British beetles into the 21st century,
although the
British Entomological and Natural History Society
The British Entomological and Natural History Society or BENHS is a British entomological society. It is based at Dinton Pastures Country Park in Reading.
History
BENHS was founded in 1872 as the South London Entomological and Natural History So ...
produced a companion volume, ''
New British Beetles - species not in Joy's practical handbook
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
'' by
Peter J. Hodge and
Richard A. Jones in 1995.
British coleopterists refer to the book colloquially simply as "Joy".
References
{{zoology-book-stub