This is the first comprehensive book ever published on butterflies of Iran, a region of extreme importance for the understanding of the speciation and distribution of European butterflies and it should be of the greatest interest to all European lepidopterists with interest in butterflies.
The book is the result of over 8 years of intensive work by the author, and covers all the 379 known species of butterflies for Iran up to December 2002. For each species, the Persian text gives elaborate details on taxonomy incl. subspecies, distribution, description, individual variation, biology and ecology incl. type of habitat, flight period, habits of the adult butterfly, and larval food plants. The text is accompanied by highly accurate dot-maps for every taxon, giving accurate localities for the known range of each species and including every known record since the time of the first paper published on the Persian Lepidoptera by Ménétriès in 1832. Many local museums and private collections have been  visited by the author and localities are incorporated in the maps. Colour plates are the most fascinating part of the book; nearly all photos incorporated in the plates are from specimens with Iranian origins, and are followed by specimens’ data in English. The taxonomic histories (including original descriptions and synonymy) in the main text are also in English and most useful to non-Farsi speakers. There are two indices at the end of the book; one for the Lepidopterous and another for botanical names. This fine book is published in only 1500 copies, so it can very well get out of print rather soon.