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, wh’ch was originally brought out in 
70 
