PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 23, XO. 4, APRIL, 1921 79 



Europe. Evidently Abbot was a close and enthusiastic student 

 of the biology and ecology of insects as his drawings and notes 

 demonstrate this unmistakably. He was content to labor in this 

 field of entomological research, leaving the taxonomic phases of 

 the science entirely to others. Fortunately a competent and 

 amiable collaborator appeared in the person of Dr. Smith, who 

 has been fair and even generous in awarding Abbot full credit 

 for his share in the fine work which was the result of their joint 

 labors. Dr. Smith makes it perfectly obvious that the text of 

 this work was written around the Abbot drawings and that with- 

 out these admirable illustrations the taxonomic notes supplied 

 by himself would have but little value. Regarding Abbot's 

 work Dr. Scudder says "He was the most prominent student of 

 life histories we ever had." 



The work of Smith and Abbot was published under the title of 

 'The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of 

 Georgia," printed in London in 1797, although some of the plates 

 were engraved as early as 1793. It contains 104 plates of folio 

 size, engraved intaglio on copper by Moses Harris from Abbot's 

 drawings. The engraving is of excellent quality but some of the 

 figures have not fared so well at the hands of the colorist whose 

 identity is not revealed, but it certainly was not Abbot, who 

 never saw the work until long after publication occurred. In 

 most cases the figures are about life size or slightly enlarged, 

 showing the larva, pupa and adult of each species associated 

 with its favorite host plant. Where the sexes differ materially 

 in appearance, both of them are figured. Abbot is said to have 

 been still living in England in 1840, at the age of about 80 years, 

 but the date of his demise does not seem to have been recorded in 

 any of the publications to which I have access. 



It is indeed most deplorable that very little is known regarding 

 the personality' of John Abbot. What is perhaps the best account 

 of him is given by Dr. S. H. Scudder, 1 who says he quotes 

 Swainson on the subject, but who also secured additional infor- 

 mation from Dr. A. Oemler of Wilmington Island, Georgia. It 

 is supposed that Abbot was an Englishman who was engaged, 

 when about 30 years of age, by certain entomologists of England 

 to undertake a collecting expedition to America. After consid- 

 erable travel in this country he settled in the province of Georgia, 

 where he lived for a period of nearly 20 years at or near Jackson- 

 burgh, Scriven County, that State. All traces of this early 

 settlement have now disappeared, although there were aged 

 persons living in Georgia in 1885, but since deceased, who kneu 

 and remembered Abbot. None of these persons survu ed at the 

 time Dr. Scudder's article was written in 1 S88. It has been said 

 that Abbot returned to England in 1.810 and that he was still 



'Canadian Knt., Vol. XX, p. 153. 



