This book forms a comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date text on tropical forest entomology written by an author who has spent his entire career working and living in the tropics. It is both a broad treatment of the principles and practice of tropical forest entomology, and a detailed and penetrating exploration of specific insect pests and the methods used to manage them. What is most significant about this work is its organization of an enormous body of information on tropical insect pests within a general theoretical framework. This is particularly important to students of forest protection, who need to understand the theory of population dynamics and pest outbreaks before they can intelligently manage insect pests.

Dr K. S. S. Nair is eminently qualified to write such a book. He has served as head of the Entomology Division of the Kerala Forest Research Institute in India for some 18 years, and as its director for a further five years, and has also worked at the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia. He has been an active member of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) Subject Group ‘Entomology’ for many years, and has served as chairman of the Working Party on ‘Protection of Forest in the Tropics’ for eight years, and as deputy coordinator of the subject group ‘Forest Health’ for nine years. This has given him a broad experience in international forest entomology, both in tropical and temperate forests.