Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde. Eine systematische Bearbeitung der Gross-Schmetterlinge der ganzen Welt. Abteilung II. Exotische Fauna. Band XIV. Die Afrikanischen Spinner und Schwärmer.

Stuttgart, Kerner, 1930. Two volumes (text and atlas). 4to (32.7 x 25.4 cm). Text volume: vii, 599 pp.; Atlas volume: vii pp.; 80 chromolithographed plates. Unbound in two marbled portfolios. = A mint copy (ready for binding) of a rare part of one of the largest and most beautifully illustrated works on butterflies and moths. Its fine plates were made using the process of 10-14 colour lithography, and its excellent quality has remained unsurpassed. The editor, Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz (1860-1938), planned to finish the whole work in 1912. This proved to be quite unrealistic as publication stopped in 1954, and several volumes remained unfinished. The most important collections of butterflies were consulted including those of L. W. Rothschild of Tring, the British Museum, the Paris Natural History Museum, the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt, as well as collections in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia, South- and North America, etc. This part deals with African moths, many quite colourful and of a very large size. This work is in particular of importance because of its extensive descriptions and detailed illustrations of new and poorly known species. Cat. BM(NH), p. 1895; Nissen ZBI, 3799N.Ready for binding.