When it comes to natural history field guides for the United States at the state level, no series ever published can even approach the California Natural History Guides for either breadth or depth of coverage. Originally established in 1958 with the publication of Arthur C. Smith’s Introduction to the Natural History of the San Francisco Bay Region, the series now totals over 100 volumes, each presenting the state’s flora, fauna, geology, ecology, or anthropology in rich detail.
Although having gone quiet in 2014 following the publication of James P. Smith Jr.’s Field Guide to Grasses of California, I was delighted to learn that a new volume will be added to the series, its 111th, this October: the Field Guide to California Insects, Second Edition by Kip Will, Joyce Gross, Daniel Rubinoff, and Jerry A. Powell.
Expanding and updating California Insects (volume 44 in the series) by Jerry A. Powell and Charles L. Hogue, the first edition published in 1980 (if my information is correct), this new second edition presents “over 600 insect species, each beautifully illustrated with color photographs [with detailed profiles that] focus on distinguishing features, remarkable aspects of biology, and geographical distribution” of the species in the state.
Does this new volume signal a resurgence of activity in this remarkable series? The publicist from University of California Press refused to say – no matter how much I begged (it was somewhat embarrassing for us both).
As one who lives in a state adjacent to California, I have found it particularly valuable to amass a collection of these helpful guides to use in the study of my own state’s nature history. While not everything matches between California and Oregon, there is more than enough cross-over to make them useful, and the supporting information included and explanatory are always both informative and interesting. Therefore I’m keeping my fingers crossed that news of a future volume 112 will once day soon reach my ears.
