Colias Butterfly and Hipparchia Butterfly Lifecycle illustration c1860.

by Humphreys, H.N.

Exquisite antique print of Butterflies and their Transformations.
Colias Myrmidone male, female, female underside. Hipparchia (Oreina) Muestra of Hubner, underside. Variety of Hipparchia Janira. Splendid variety of Argynnis Lathonia. 

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

Humphreys was a British naturalist, entomologist, 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 transformation lifecycle of insects. Humphreys wrote of 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). Tiny foxing spots at base.