Bargain Butterflies and their Transformation. Humphreys antique print c1841.

by Humphreys, H.N.

Hand-coloured engraving. Lifecycle of Butterflies with host vegetation.

Original  hand-coloured engraving arranged and illustrated by Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-1879), with characters and descriptions by J. O. Westwood, F.L.S. and secretary of the Entomological Society, (1805-1893), for British Butterflies and their Transformations published in London c1849.

Humphreys was a British illustrator and numismatist. His presentation of the butterflies with caterpillar and chrysalis, impressed curators at the British Museum, who adopted this method of illustrating the lifecycle transformation of insects.
Humphreys wrote about 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.”

This page is slightly creased at top and has faint soiling around edge of page. Size is 270 x 205mm (10 5/8 x 8 inches).