Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History (Princeton Field Guides Book 62)

My one star rating of Caterpillars of Eastern North America by Princeton may be misleading because I Love the book itself, the book contents is excellent. But the quality of the book binding sucks. I received the book on September 2, 2014 and this is the 12 of September and with less than two weeks of use the binding has already failed, with groups of pages coming loose from the spine and falling out. Another Princeton Field Guide, Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, given to me by my daughter as a birthday gift has also failed at the binding with loose pages after only a couple of months use. Contents of both books is excellent work but book quality construction wise is the worst I have owned and I have at least 25 other field guides. I would not purchase another Princeton Field Guide unless it was better constructed or at least bound another way. Richard Leamon

I live in southeast Michigan and love looking for caterpillars on my hikes. This field guide has been an endless source of information for me.I've included some pictures I've taken from just the last couple months. Left to right - Snowberry Clearwing, Orange-Striped Oakworm, Red Admiral, Viceroy.These are just a few of the caterpillars I have been able to find and identify thanks to this book and I've had it a couple years now. Still has held up despite being used so much.Anyone serious about finding and identifying caterpillars (and lives east of the Mississippi) should have this book. I love doing my research on what I may find during certain months and on certain plants/trees and then actually finding it. Knowing where to look, when to look, and how to go about looking is going to make all the difference and this delivers on that.

The cover of this book is spectacular! However, it should be noted that 95% of the entire book is all about caterpillars that turn into moths not butterflies. I couldn’t believe that they didn’t even have the Beloved,monarch Catapillar??? Wish I didn’t buy it

I had purchased the Beetle book of Eastern North America and it was wonderful and large enough print to read. I did not notice that the Caterpillar book of eastern North America had "field guide" in small print. It was by the same publisher, so I assumed it would be a large book with print that was legible!! They need to also publish this in a readable version. Content and pictures were excellent, just hard to read. You would never carry this book which weighs a few pounds with you in the field to begin with.

I bought this because we found a caterpillar at a picnic and after half an hour of internet image searching, still didn't know what it was. I have a real weakness for reference books, and while ponying up $23 for a caterpillar guide was a sort of facepalm moment, I have no regrets. I found the picnic caterpillar within five minutes. The color photos are great and the accompanying information is interesting and useful. Also, I like that it's specific to the northeast - I've spent too much time looking for a thing I've spied and finally think I've got it, only to discover that it lives in California.

We bought a butterfly kit from Toys R Us, and hatched out some Painted Lady butterflies from mail order caterpillars. We decided to take it a step further, and hatch out some that we found. The biggest challenge was finding out what they ate. So we bought this book. It has been perfect for our purposes. We have hatched out a cabbage worm, which is a pest, but is also an abundant specimen for a first try. This past week, we hatched out our first Monarch Butterfly. We have supplemented by Googling for information online, and another butterfly identification book that is very specific to butterflies. I would suggest adding an easier butterfly component to this book, but it is already pretty thick and comprehensive for caterpillars. It would be too big, and cease to be a field guide. We used a butterfly book to figure out that many of the swallowtails around us are Spice Wood Swallowtails. This book told us that the caterpillars look like bird poop for the first three molts. I probably would have continued to pass up what I thought was bird poop on leaves. Now we can hatch some swallowtails!

First, let me say that I've had this for two years, and it has held up very well, so I can speak highly of its durability. The binding is not coming loose at all, and I have flipped through it countless times. It is one of those books that is always laying out and ready in my apartment.I haven't taken it to the field much, it's pretty heavy, and it really isn't that kind of guide, in my opinion. This is something that should be pored over indoors and learned from. There is so much knowledge here.It is true that this book is not easy to use if you have no knowledge of lepidopteran families. But I think anyone who has enough interest to consider buying a book like this should do it without hesitation. As I said before, this is a book that can teach you an incredible amount. The language straddles the line between scientific detachment and human fascination. It is very, very easy to read. There are many references to classic scientific papers on certain lepidopteran families, so your self-education can really spring off from this one book, and it sets a good example to any budding biologists who may someday be writing about biology, a subject that needs all the talented writers it can get.This is also an entertaining book. I can easily imagine someone buying this just to look at the pictures, and never even looking at the text at all, and still being endlessly amazed.Highly recommend this book. Add it to your shelf of insect books, keep it in your backpack, leave it on your coffee table, leave it on your toilet, just buy it. You can't go wrong here.

This doesn't cover ALL of the thousands of caterpillar species (that would be just about impossible), but it covers a good chunk of the commonly encountered ones. This book works reasonably well for western North America too.

This fine volume by David L.Wagner more than satisfies my needs as an insect hobbyist/photographer. I happen to live in Canada and will probably never see half of the species profiled within the 700 plus pages of the book.

Really great guide! If you're interested in caterpillars (or the moths/butterfly's they turn into) then grab this book. Beautiful photos and excellent descriptions!

Great! Thanks!