Arran Butterflies and Argus Butterflies on Poa Grasses. c1860.

by Humphreys, H.N.

H.N. Humphreys Striking antique print of Scottish Butterflies.
Oreina Ligea (Arran Brown Butterfly) female, male, underside, Caterpillar.  Oreina Blandina (Scotch Argus Butterfly) male, female. English variety male underside. Scotch variety male underside. English variety female underside. Scotch variety female underside. Host grasses: Poa glauca (Glaucous Meadow-grass) and Poa alpina (Alpine Meadow Grass).

Original  hand-coloured lithograph arranged and illustrated by Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-1879) with characters and descriptions by John Obadiah Westwood, F.L.S. and secretary of the Entomological Society, (1805-1893), for British Butterflies and their Transformations published in London c1860.

Humphreys was a British naturalist, entomologist and illustrator.. His presentation of butterflies with their caterpillar and chrysalis, impressed curators at the British Museum, who adopted this method of illustrating the transformation lifecycle of insects. Humphreys wrote, “The study of natural history... cannot conceive a more pleasing and natural introduction to its general study than entomology, of which I think the division of Lepidoptera.. the most easy and attractive section.  H. N. Humphreys, Esq.”

Page size is 285 x 210mm (11.25 x 8.25 inches). Very pretty lithograph - with faint marks.