Butterflies have been part of David James’ life since he was 8 years old.

Now an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Entomology, James has co-authored an illustrated book about butterfly species around the world.

“[I] fell in love with them,” James said.

James said his childhood love for butterflies, the general public’s interest in butterflies and his concern about the future of butterflies, their protection and conservation are the three things that encouraged him to write his new book, titled “The Lives of Butterflies: A Natural History of Our Planet’s Butterfly Life” and published Jan. 9.

James said his lifetime of study of temperate zone populations in North America, Europe and Australia, along with his research, contributed to this book.

Co-author David Lohman filled an important role in writing the book by focusing on tropical butterflies, James said. Lohman spends most of his time with tropical butterflies and is an expert on them.

The book is targeted toward people with a zeal for ecological wonders who are passionate about the lives of butterflies, such as naturalists, gardeners, hikers and the general public, James said.

“My hope is that the book will fascinate people enough to want to learn more about the butterflies in their own part of the world,” James said.

James said finding photographs of butterflies performing acts like mating, feeding on things other than flowers and flying presented a challenge.

“I have been taking photos of butterflies for decades, so I was able to find most of what I needed from my image files,” James said.

One such challenge was finding a picture of a female butterfly wearing a chastity belt-like sphragis, which a male butterfly places on them after mating, James said.

Tanna Knouse from Western Washington provided a photograph of a female Parnassian butterfly wearing a sphragis, which appears on page 86 of the book, James said.

While writing the book, James said he discovered new knowledge.

“[While] checking the most current status of our knowledge, I was pleased to find some significant advances of which I wasn’t aware,” James said.

The book is available on Amazon Kindle for $19.25 and on various other platforms.