Books about North American Butterflies 



lung Exotischer Schmetterlinge." To this work was added, as an 

 appendix,- partly by Hubner and partly by his successor and co- 

 laborer, Karl Geyer, another, entitled " Zutrage zur Sammlung 

 Exotischer Schmetterlinge." The two works together are illus- 

 trated by six hundred and sixty-four colored plates. This great 

 publication contains some scattered figures of North American 

 species. A good copy sells for from three hundred and fifty to 

 four hundred dollars, or even more. 



The first work which was devoted exclusively to an account 

 of the lepidoptera of North America was published in England 

 by Sir James Edward Smith, who was a botanist, and who gave 

 to the world in two volumes some of the plates which had been 

 drawn by John Abbot, an Englishman who lived for a number of 

 years in Georgia. The work appeared in two folio volumes, 

 bearing the date 1797. It is entitled " The Natural History of the 

 Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia." It contains one hun- 

 dred and four plates, in which the insects are represented in their 

 various stages upon their appropriate food-plants. Smith and 

 Abbot's work contains original descriptions of only about half a 

 dozen of the North American butterflies, and figures a number of 

 species which had been already described by earlier authors. 

 It is mainly devoted to the moths. This work is now rare and 

 commands a very high price. 



The next important work upon the subject was published by 

 Dr. J. A. Boisduval of Paris, a celebrated entomologist, who was 

 assisted by Major John E. Leconte. The work appeared in the 

 year 1833, and is entitled " Histoire Generate et Monographic des 

 Lepidopteres et des Chenilles de l'Amerique Septentrionale." It 

 contains seventy-eight colored plates, each representing butterflies 

 of North America, in many cases giving figures of the larva and 

 the chrysalis as well as of the perfect insect. The plates were 

 based very largely upon drawings made by John Abbot, and 

 represent ninety-three species, while in the text there are only 

 eighty-five species mentioned, some of which are not figured. 

 What has been said of all the preceding works is also true of this: 

 it is very rarely offered for sale, can only be found upon occasion, 

 and commands a high price. 



In the year 1841 Dr. Thaddeus William Harris published "A 

 Report on the Insects of Massachusetts which are Injurious to 

 Vegetation." This work, which was originally brought out in 



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