Swarm of wings

To hold a rare and dazzling butterfly in your palm is an exhilarating experience. Nearly 400 such experiences await in this exquisitely produced, hand-sized volume of images by renowned insect photographer Kjell Sandved. It opens a window onto the magical world of butterflies, whose complex behavioral repertoire is matched by few invertebrates.

A quick flip through these eye-popping images produces a dizzying strobe of flashing rainbow wings; a ramble through Cassie’s text reveals intimate details of what these ephemeral creatures actually do as they go about their quotidian tasks -- flying, feeding, mating, vigorously defending their territories and racking up thousands of intercontinental migration miles.

Butterflies have a lot of tricks up their Darwinian sleeves. To evade predators, “mimics” have evolved to imitate poisonous species, leafwings blend into tree bark and caterpillars disguise themselves as bird droppings. This photographic peek into Lepidoptera land unveils a world of astonishing visual delights.

-- Susan Dworski