"Psyche" was the ancient Greek word for butterflies and the insect was still at the time of the Counter-Reformation a symbol for a religious soul. We associate today butterflies with joie de vivre and lightness. And yet we only know a handful of the 170,000 identified species. This knowledgeable animal portrait gives an exhaustive account about the short but fascinating life of the moth - from the enigmatic capillar stage to the sudden eclosion, from the choice of a partner guided by pheromon to egglaying. What does a butterfly feel? What does it think? Does he dream? These questions along with many others are answered by a woman who has to know it. Because this book also tells the stroy of the metamorphose of a young student in biology who became a butterfly specialist within a single summer in Greece and spend many years in Sardinia to observe meadow browns before starting to keep butterflies in a closet at the university of Amsterdam. A nimbly and instructive cocoon about mothers but also abut humans who are wandering in summer meadows with long-handled nets.
Sweden, Italy, China
Andrea Grill, born 1975, is a biologiest and a writer. She studied biology, Spanish, Italian and linguistic and lived for many years in Sardinia. She got a Ph.D. in 2003 with a thesis on butterflies in Sardinia. Besides her scientific work she is the auhtor of many literary textes and translates from Albanian into German.
By the same author(s)
"It is exciting to witness the repeatedly taken up life course of the author, her ever more intimate and also intensive scientific researching relationship to the butterfly world. She has done an outstanding job. The booklet is a jewel, testifying deep love for the butterfly world and nature in general, with from it sprouting energetic, persevering research diligence." - Werner Schäfer, Gegenwart
