Australian Weevils: Volume IV covers the 11 smaller tribes of the weevil subfamily Entiminae (broad-nosed weevils), which comprises more than 100 genera and 700 described species in Australia. Around half of this fauna is covered in Volume IV, featuring keys to all the tribes, genera and described species as well as updated concepts and diagnoses of the tribes and summarising accounts of the taxonomy, nomenclature, distribution and known hostplants of all the genera and species. All the introduced species of Entiminae in Australia, most of which are regarded as agricultural or horticultural pests, are included, as are descriptions of 12 new genera and eight new species and identifications of about another 240 undescribed species. The book also includes an overview of the salient characters of the Entiminae, illustrated on 18 colour plates of diagnostic features needed for identifying these weevils, alongside a further 180 colour plates illustrating the habitus and genitalia of all the genera and of several other species and their diagnostic characters. The volume further includes an obituary and full publication list of the late Elwood C. Zimmerman as well as an updated list of recent literature on the Australian Entiminae and other weevils. The book is an essential reference work for researchers and students working with entimine weevils both in Australia and abroad. It is part of the Australian Weevils series.

Volume 19 of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) contains concise biographies of individuals who died between 1991 and 1995. The first of two volumes for the 1990s, it presents a colourful montage of late twentieth-century Australian life, containing the biographies of significant and representative Australians. The volume is still in the shadow of World War II with servicemen and women who enlisted young appearing, but these influences are dimming and there are now increasing numbers of non-white, non-male, non-privileged and non-straight subjects. The 680 individuals recorded in volume 19 of the ADB include Wiradjuri midwife and Ngunnawal Elder Violet Bulger; Aboriginal rights activist, poet, playwright and artist Kevin Gilbert; and Torres Strait Islander community leader and land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo. HIV/AIDS child activists Tony Lovegrove and Eve Van Grafhorst have entries, as does conductor Stuart Challender, ‘the first Australian celebrity to go public’ about his HIV/AIDS condition in 1991. The arts are, as always, well-represented, including writers Frank Hardy, Mary Durack and Nene Gare, actors Frank Thring and Leonard Teale and arts patron Ian Potter. We are beginning to see the effects of the steep rise in postwar immigration flow through to the ADB. Artist Joseph Stanislaw Ostoja-Kotkowski was born in Poland. Pilar Moreno de Otaegui, co-founded the Spanish Club of Sydney. Chinese restaurateur and community leader Ming Poon (Dick) Low migrated to Victoria in 1953. Often we have a dearth of information about the domestic lives of our subjects; politician Olive Zakharov, however, bravely disclosed at the Victorian launch of the federal government’s campaign to Stop Violence Against Women in 1993 that she was a survivor of domestic violence in her second marriage. Take a dip into the many fascinating lives of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

This brand new addition to the secondary literature on Entomologists is a labour of love by a greatly respected entomology librarian (retired, of the Natural History Museum, London), and at the same time a very efficient tool for research into the literature references providing biographies, bibliographies, portraits, and any other details on deceased entomologists before the end of 2004. It starts with an introduction, giving information on sources, format, and references used, followed by 615 pages of references. The Supplement contains a list of the names that appear in A Compendium of the Biographical Literature on Deceased Entomologists, published in 1977, for which there are no additional references in the present work. The Addendum lists information from two historical works on entomology published in 2006, which could not be included in the main text.

The book introduces basic entomology, emphasising perspectives on insect diversity important in conservation assessment and setting priorities for management, as a foundation for managers and others without entomological training or background. It bridges the gap between photographic essays on insect identification and more technical texts, to illustrate and discuss many aspects of taxonomic, ecological and evolutionary diversity in the Australian insect fauna, and its impacts in human life, through outlines of many aspects of insect natural history.

A Flutter of Butterflies is a stunning showcase of butterfly and moth illustrations held by the National Library of Australia. The works span the years from the 1770s, through the early colonial period to the turn of the twenty-first century.As well as containing a plethora of gorgeous colour images, the publication features a fascinating introductory essay about the history of Australian Lepidoptera illustration. In addition to the essay, the book offers biographical essays about the artists represented, among whom are some of Australias most-loved artists, including Louisa Anne Meredith, Marian Ellis Rowan and Charles McCubbin.

In this beautifully illustrated volume on Australian tenebrionid beetles, higher-level groups are reviewed, keys provided to enable identification to genus and subgenus level, and notes are provided on relationships, distribution and biology. A catalogue of all Australian taxa down to subspecies level is presented, including synonymy relevant to the Australian fauna, type localities, and location of types. Eight subfamilies, 43 tribes, 216 valid genera and subgenera. 1595 valid species are listed. The senior author, Dr Eric Matthews, in retirement an Honorary Fellow at the South Australian Museum, is well known among entomologists and ecologists for his studies on beetles, particularly tenebrionids, and his very useful set of keys to beetle groups of South Australia. Dr Patrice Bouchard, research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, in Ottawa, studied the evolution and relationships of Australian rainforest Tenebrionidae during his Ph.D. He is also interested in the nomenclature and biogeography of darkling beetles. Together, Matthews and Bouchard bring us a thorough summary of knowledge of Australian Tenebrionidae.