CHAPTER IV 
BOOKS ABOUT NORTH AMERICAN MOTHS 
The literature of our subject is quite extensive, and the 
most important portions of it are contained in the publications of 
various learned societies and institutions. 
The first references to the subject are found in the writings 
of Linnaeus, Johanssen, Clerck, Fabricius, Cramer, Hubner, Geyer, 
Drury and John Abbot. The works of Clerck, Cramer, Hubner, 
Geyer and Drury are all illustrated, and contain figures of many 
of the more showy North American species. Abbot and Smith’s 
“Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia” gives figures of a 
number of moths, with their larvae and food-plants. 
In 1841 the work of Dr. Thaddeus William Harris, entitled 
“A Report on the Insects of Massachusetts which are Injurious 
to Vegetation,” was published. This was followed in 1852 by 
the work of A. Guenee on the Noctuelites, the Deltoides, and 
the Pyralites, constituting Volumes V.-VIII. of the “Species 
General des Lepidopteres,” forming a portion of the “ Suites a 
Bufifon.” Many North American species were here described 
for the first time, and some of them were figured in the Atlas of 
Plates accompanying the work. In 1850 G. A. W. Herrich- 
SchaefTer of Ratisbon began the publication of his “ Sammlung 
Neuer oder Wenig Bekannter Aussereuropaischer Schmetter- 
linge,” which, appearing in parts, was not completed until 1869. 
Good figures of a number of North American moths are con¬ 
tained in this important volume. In 1854 Francis Walker began 
the publication under the authority of the Trustees of the British 
Museum of his “List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects 
in the Collection of the British Museum.” This work, which 
finally grew to thirty-five volumes, the last of which appeared 
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