The major part of the book consists of species descriptions. These concentrate on the larva and complement the adult descriptions in Skinner. They include food plants, larval phenology and habits. Fieldcraft and rearing tips are also given.

The rest of the book is given over to 49 plates of colour photographs, 18 per page, so they measure only 51 by 34mm. Caterpillars have eleven segments with often a similar pattern repeated on each segment but the photographs are too small to show the individual segments in much detail.

Mostly there is a single photograph of a single final instar larva of each species. Two colour forms are shown in a few cases or two instars where the young larva differs. There is generally a single view (dorso-lateral), but a few are lateral or dorsal, presumably to highlight distinguishing features, but this can make it difficult to compare similar species. The caterpillars are shown on the food plant.

The photographs are generally of high quality, although some are marred by heavy shadow or dingy colours. In this reviewer’s opinion, a bit more work in Adobe PhotoShop would have made a big difference in the latter case.

As already mentioned, the reproduction of the photographs is slightly disappointing but don’t be put off: this is still by far the best of the available guides to our macro-lepidopteran caterpillars and is a real "tour de force" by the author.