Morphos, longwings, birdwings, swallowtails, and other gorgeously caparisoned insects flutter in eye-filling profusion across both natural tropical scenes, and the artificial ones in constructed butterfly houses, in this follow up to Slinky, Scaly, Slithery Snakes (2000) and its predecessors. Around Patent’s brief observations about butterfly life cycles, eating habits and mimicry, plus how live butterfly exhibits in colder climes are stocked from a specialized farm in Costa Rica, Jubb depicts several dozen specimens in extreme close-ups, focusing less on fine details of structure than on gorgeous, riotous colors in a sort of messy construction. This introduction covers well-traveled territory, but casual browsers as well as budding lepidopterists will be riveted. (index, map) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
