1766 HARRIS, Moses (1730 – 1788)

The Aurelian or natural history of English insects; namely, moths and butterflies.

Harris drew and engraved his own illustrations. The second edition (1778) was considerably expanded, and with four more plates than the first, for a total of 45. Some of the hand-colored copies were hand-colored by th…

GMN 10570 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12763

1797 ABBOT, John (1751 – 1840); SMITH, Sir James Edward (1759 – 1828)

The natural history of the rarer lepidopterous insects of Georgia. Including their systematic characters, the particulars of their several metamorphoses, and the plants on which they feed. Collected from the observations of Mr. John Abbot, many years resident in that country, by James Edward Smith.

The earliest illustrated monograph on the butterflies and moths of North America. Text in English and French. 104 hand-colored plates. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 7768 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9940

1829 –1837 BOISDUVAL, Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de (1799 – 1879); LE CONTE, John Eatton Jr. (1784 – 1860)

Histoire général et iconographie des lepidoptérès et des chenilles de l’Amerique septentrionale.

Includes illustrations from drawings by John Abbot.

GMN 9574 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11761

1862 BATES, Henry Walter (1825 – 1892)

Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley: Lepidoptera: Heliconidae.

Bates spent eleven years in the Amazon and there collected 8,000 species of insects new to science. In the above paper he clearly stated and solved the problem of “mimicry”, known today as “Batesian mimicry”. The supe…

GMN 220.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4046

1900 DENTON, Sherman Foote (1856 – 1937)

As nature shows them. Moths and butterflies of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. With over 400 photographic illustrations in the text and many transfers of species from life. 2 vols.

Includes 56 nature-printed and handcolored plates produced from impressions of the wings of the actual insects pressed onto the paper. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

GMN 13204 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15465

1915 PUNNETT, Reginald Crundall (1875 – 1967)

Mimicry in butterflies.

GMN 13114 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15367

1960 LISNEY, Arthur A.

A bibliography of British Lepidoptera, 1608-1799.

Bibliography of British works on butterflies and moths from the early seventeenth to late eighteenth centuries. Includes biographical information on the authors covered. Plates are mainly portraits of the authors.

GMN 10569 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12762

2000 SALMON, Michael A.; MARREN, Peter; HARLEY, Basil H. (1931 – 2017)

The Aurelian legacy: British butterflies and their collectors. By Michael A. Salmon with additional material by Peter Marren and Basil Harley.

GMN 10670 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12863

2015 PEALE, Titian Ramsay (1799 – 1885)

The butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's lost manuscript. Foreward by Ellen V. Futter. Preface and scientific captions by David A. Grimaldi. Introduction by Kenneth Haltman.

GMN 10442 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12635