Examples of host-plant manipulations and cultural practices, such as tillage, are recommended as alternatives to direct control to forestall an outbreak. Although the authors advocate a detailed understanding of the overwintering process to facilitate control, simple life table information would suffice to predict the emergence levels of pests based upon pre-winter abundances. An appealing feature of this book is its use of case-study methods to discuss overwintering paradigms in depth. The many European examples, drawing from publications in Scandinavian tongues as well as Russian, French and German, should provide some fresh insights to North American readers. Graphs and figures, some original and others reproduced from journals, are distributed liberally through the text to elucidate concepts or highlight data.
Some graphs are, unfortunately, difficult to decipher or provided with insufficient documentation.
Other irritations include missing or inaccurate citations and some ponderous sentence structures. Yet, these are minor quibbles about a valuable book that fills a vacant niche on insect cryobiology and should stimulate entomologists to consider the pure and applied ramifications of overwintering strategies.