Salamanders of the United States and Canada
The last major reference on North American salamanders was Sherman C. Bishop's A Handbook of Salamanders, published in 1943 and reissued by Cornell University Press as a natural history classic in 1994. Now comes this totally new reference from Petranka (biology, Univ. of North Carolina, Asheville), who has published numerous articles on salamanders and is on the editorial board of two herpetology journals. His preface indicates that over 30 new species have been described since Bishop's classic was first published. Petranka's comprehensive work covers the identification and natural history of 127 recognized species and includes references to the recent literature; over 2000 publications are cited. Hundreds of black-and-white photographs accompany the text, and a center section of 172 color plates will further aid in identification. A distribution map is shown for each species. Essential for herpetology collections.?William H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Lib., AmesCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.