At 71 taxa (52 spp) the pugs are our largest single group of closely related macrolepidoptera. A number of species are common and the group will be familiar to anybody who has run a light trap. But many of these small moths are closely similar so careful attention to detail is required and "detail" is precisely what this book provides.

After a short introduction, the text begins with "How to use this book" which includes checklists and a formalised identification procedure. This is a useful feature for a group of macro-moths which cannot be reliably identified from photographs alone. Historical review of the species and Breeding and rearing pugs follow.

The main body of the book is Description of the British and Irish pug species . Each entry comprises history, imago (characteristic features, genitalia, variation), similar species (unusually this looks complete, with descriptions of the crucial differences of up to thirteen similar taxa), ovum, larva – including foodplants and instars, pupa, flight period and habitat, distribution, collecting (ie obtaining early stages) and rearing.

Next comes Genitalia with drawings of male valva where distinctive, aedeagus and female bursa copulatrix. [Alternative drawings which some people find easier to use are found in Geometridae of Euope, Vol 4 (Tony Davis pers comm)] There follows drawings of the male abdominal plates which are diagnostic and offer a stepping stone to full genitalia preparation for the field entomologist. Illustrations of the larvae follow, drawn from the dorsal aspect, in half tone as the colour is said to be variable and misleading. Vice-county distribution maps presents 49 dot maps using frequency-related symbols.

The Colour Plates, which follow the main text, include David Wilson’s photographs of set specimens. These are to his usual high standard, familiar from Bernard Skinner’s Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles. (In case you’re wondering, these are new photographs of different specimens!) Most taxa actually appear three times: life-sized photographs of set specimens in taxonomic order (3 plates), followed by the same photographs rearranged into groups of similar taxa (5 plates) and finally live moths in natural pose and setting (4 plates). My only criticism of the book is that the photographs of these small moths are only life-size; if the photographs of the set specimens are to be presented twice, surely one set could have been enlarged?

The book concludes with three Appendices: Glossary, Table of Phenology (all stages) and Foodplants and associated larvae (uptodate list, including garden plants, with sources), then References and bibliography (21 pages) and taxonomic index.