Pacific Northwest Insects

Dr. Merrill A. Peterson will speak about about why he devoted more than 10,000 hours over the last decade to write and produce his new book, Pacific Northwest Insects. For this field guide, Peterson traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest to photograph live insects. He hiked snowfields, waded through swamps, and crawled through fields and forests in pursuit of particular species.

Peterson is Professor and Chair of Biology and the Insect Collection Curator at WWU, where he has taught various courses in entomology, ecology, and evolutionary biology since 1997. He has authored numerous papers on insect ecology, evolution, and diversity, and oversaw the development of the Pacific Northwest Moths website. His natural history photographs have been published in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Butterflies of Cascadia, Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies, and many other places. This event is offered as part of the Western Libraries Reading Series.