Pretty Hipparchia butterflies on Meadow Grass. Humphreys lithograph c1860.

by Humphreys, H.N.

Humphreys butterflies lithograph. Hipparchia, Brush-footed Butterflies antique print.
Butterflies: Hipparchia Briseis female, underside, Hipparchia Tithonus (Large Heath Butterfly) male, female, underside, Caterpillar, Chrysalis. Plant: Poa pratensis (Common 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). Faint rubs at right edge and slight soiling at base.