Early North American Butterfly & Moth Books

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See also Early Entomological Books

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn


Abot, J. & J.E. Smith. 1797. 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. T. Bensley, London.

Morris, J.G. 1860. Catalogue of the Described Lepidoptera of North America Vol. III. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 68 pp.

Morris, J.G. 1862. Synopsis of the Described Lepidoptera of North America. Part I. Diurnal and Crepuscular Lepidoptera. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 358 pp.

Edwards, W.H. 1868-1872. The Butterflies of North America, Volume 1, Parts 1-10. American Entomological Society, Philadelphia. 

Scudder, S.H. 1872. A systematic revision of some of the American butterflies, with brief notes on those known to occur in Essex County, Massachusetts. Annual Report. Peabody Academy of Science 4: 24-83.

Edwards, W.H. 1872. Synopsis of North American Butterflies. Volume 1. American Entomological Society, Philadelphia. v + 52 pp.  

Scudder, S.H. 1881. Butterflies: Their Structure, Changes and Life-histories, with Special Reference to American Forms. Henry Holt & Co., New York. ix + 322 pp.

Edwards, W.H. 1884. Revised catalogue of the diurnal Lepidoptera of America north of Mexico. Transactions of the Entomological Society of America 11(3-4):62-337.

Bethune, C.J.S., W. Saunders, E.B. Reed, and others. 1867. The Canadian Entomologist. Entomological Society of America, London. 244 pp.

Edwards, W.H. 1868-1872. The Butterflies of North America. American Entomological Society,  Philadelphia. 52 pp.

Scudder, S.H.. 1889. Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada: with special reference to New England. 3 vols, S. H. Scudder Publisher, Cambridge, Mass. 1958 pp.

Maynard, C.J. 1891. A Manual of North American Butterflies. De Wolfe, Fiske & Co. 226 pp.

Maynard, C.J. 1891. The Butterflies of New England: With Original Descriptions of One Hundred and Six Species. C.J. Maynard, Newtonville, Mass. 156 pp.

Kirby, W.F. 1897. A Hand-book to the Order Lepidoptera. Vol. V. Moths - Part III. Edward Lloyd, limited, London. 316 pp.

Skinner, H. 1898. A synonymic catalogue of North American Rhopalocera. American Entomological Society, Philadelphia. 99 pp.

Holland, W.J. 1899. The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America. Doubleday & McClure Co., N.Y. 382 pp.

Scudder, S.H. 1899. Every-day Butterflies: a group of biographies. Houghton, Mifflin and company, Boston. 391 pp.

Dickerson, M.C. 1901. Moths and Butterflies. Ginn & Co, Boston. xviii + 344 pp, 233 photographic illus.

Dyar, H.G. 1902. A list of the North American Lepidoptera and key to the literature of this order of insects. Smithsonian Institution. Government Printing Office. Bulletin No. 52. xix + 723 pp.

Howard, L.O. 1902. The insect book: a popular account of the bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, flies and other North American insects exclusive of the butterflies, moths and beetles, with full life histories, tables and bibliographies. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York. xxvii + 429 pp.

Holland, W.J. 1903. The Moth Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Moths of North America. Doubleday, Page, & Co., N.Y. xxiv + 479 pp.

Comstock, J.H,, A.B. Comstock. 1904. How to Know the Butterflies: A Manual of the Butterflies of the Eastern United States. D. Appleton and Company, NY. 311 pp.

Wright, W.G. 1906. The Butterflies of the West Coast of the United States. San Bernardino, CA: published by author. 257 pp.

Barnes, W. & J.H. McDunnough. 1913. Contributions to the Natural History of the Lepidoptera of North America: Illustrations of Rare and Typical Lepidoptera (continued). Vol. II, No. I. The Review Press, Decatur, Ill. 246 pp.

French, G.H. 1885. 1914. (Fourth edition) The Butterflies of the Eastern United States. J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, London. 429 pp.

Mosher, E. 1915. A Classification of the Lepidoptera Based on Characters of the Pupa: thesis. Contribution from the Entomological Laboratories of the University of Illinois, no. 48. 318 pp.

Watson, F.E. (ed.). 1917. Insects of Florida IV. Lepidoptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 37: l-47.

Barnes, W. & J. McDunnough. 1917. Check list of the Lepidoptera of Boreal America. Herald Press, Decatur, IL. 392 pp.

Watson, F.E. (ed.). 1917. Insects of Florida IV. Lepidoptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 37: l-47.


For a discussion of the above titles, see Chapter 6 of Gochfeld & Burger (1997), History of New Jersey Butterfly Studies. For more early butterfly titles, see Appendix C: Chronological List of Publications (1758-1940) of the same publication.

Michael Gochfeld, Joanna Burger. 1997. Butterflies of New Jersey: A Guide to Their Status, Distribution, Conservation, and Appreciation. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ. 327 pp.


05 Mar 2010  © Mike Quinn / entomike@gmail.com / Early Entomological Books / Texas Entomology