The Butterflies of Scandinavia in Nature - Henriksen H. J., Kreutzer I. B.

Denmark, Odense, Skandinavisk Bogforlag, 1982, 216 pp. in full color, 22 x 29 cm, hard cover and dust jacket, ISBN 87-7501-133-6, good condition

The study of the nature of Scandinavia has provided us with many exciting experiences, all intensified by the impact of beauty. This book concentrates, however, on the butterflies we have encountered on the sunny days of our wanderings. It tells nothing of the field entomologist’s struggles with flies, mosquitoes, defective photography equipment, weeks of rainy weather and the tense wait for a glimpse of the sun. This is a period of waiting which provides time for other interests such as botany, ornithology, geology, archeology and perhaps gastronomy... interests which are abandoned immediately when the sun finally appears and everything - including photography - must be accomplished within a few hours. Suddenly the consumption of food and other secondary occupations must be dropped. The appreciation of nature remains constant, however, and following a few days of sunshine and good results with the camera there is once again time to enjoy the nightingale’s warble towards the south, the bluethroat’s toward the north, a circling eagle, the whistle of the curlew, the smell of thyme, the white bells of Lapland cassiope, the dignified calm of the reindeer and the elk, the fossils of Gotland and 01and’s orchids, the grandeur of the mountains and the views they provide, the glow of the midnight sun, the whisper of a deciduous forest, the North Sea’s fresh surf or a summer morning’s first maturna on a meadow, wet with dew, near a stream.

We hope that these impressions and moods, which form the background of the book’s photographs, will contribute to an understanding and protection of the many threatened but essential values of nature, not only for the present but to ensure the values of future generations. The distribution maps illustrate the current distribution of species after approx. 1970. Estimates have been unavoidable in several instances. During our preparation of the book we have received assistance with the text, maps, habitats and much more. For this we would like to express our gratitude to Hakan Elmquist, Sw., Hasse Hellberg, Sw., H. H. Henriksen, Dk., H. Kjarstad, No., Leif Lyneborg, Dk., Goran Palmquist, Sw., Fritz Schepler, Dk., Mogens Schliiter, Dk., and Stig Aagesen, Dk. Thank you to Niels P. Kristensen of the Zoological Museum, K0benhavn, Dk. for contributions to the specifications of species-subspecies distributions and genital studies. An additional thank you for the assistance of the Zoological Museums of Arhus, Dk. and Lund, Sw. Thank you to Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dk. for the entire text of agestis and artaxerxes and a special thank you to Svend Kaber, Dk. for his kind and critical editing of manuscripts. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Kerstin Rambring for making her husband’s manuscripts and collections available for our use. Thank you to all those who have contributed picture material and who are mentioned in the credit list at the back of the book. A special thank you to Steffen Johansen, Dk. and Roberto Villa, Bologna, Italy for excellent shots of eggs, larvae and pupae. Thank you to photo-engraving service and printers for careful, talented work in their reproduction of photographs and text and for their tolerance of the authors somewhat unique requests and ideas. Our gratitude to the lepidopterogical and entomological societies of Norway, Sweden and Denmark for their support. Our deepest gratitude goes however to our closest families and in particular to my wife Asta Louise Henriksen. This book had never reached completion without her exceptional help, competancy, understanding and patience. Thank you to Lene Kreutzer as well. Finally a warm thank you to Elisabeth Folino, Denmark for her enthusiastic, careful and comprehensive translation from Danish to English of the text’s ample details and subtleties.