An introductory guide covering a small selection of the 100,000 arthropod species known from Western Europe (including Britain and Ireland).

There is a short pictorial key to groups. This is followed by the main account which consists of full pages of colour paintings facing a page of short species accounts of the illustrated arthropods. The insects are covered in taxonomic order, with extra spreads at the end for (non-lepidopteran) Terrestrial larvae, Aquatic nymphs and larvae, Other arthropods (2 spreads), Spiders (3 spreads). Species found in Britain and/or Ireland are marked with a triangle (the opposite convention from his ealier "Field Guide to the Insects of Britain and Northern Europe"!) with the triangle shaded to show restricted distribution.

As is inevitable with these popular guides, it’s unfortunate that the major part is devoted to Macro-lepidoptera which are already so well covered elsewhere. On a more positive note, it’s nice to see the caterpillars portrayed with the adults.

Useful for the sheer number of species illustrated, but - because there are so many more species that are omitted! - should not be relied upon for anything more than approximate identification.