The Macrolepidoptera of the World. Division II: Fauna Exotica. Volume X. The Indo-Australian Bombyces and Sphinges.

Stuttgart, Kernen Verlag, 1933-1934. In two volumes (text and atlas). 4to. (31.8 x 27.0 cm). ix, 909 pp.; (vii) pp., 104 chromolithographed plates (Numbered 1-54, 55 A-C, 56 A-C, 57-100). Publisher's half calf. Spine rich gilt with vignettes and gilt morocco labels. Edges blue. = The complete tenth volume of one of the most important and beautifully illustrated works on butterflies and moths ever published. Its fine plates were made using the process of 10-14 colour lithography, and its excellent quality has remained unsurpassed. This part deals with mostly quite colourful butterflies from Asia, and Oceania, including Australia. Many species are new. The author, Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz (1860-1938), planned to finish the whole work in 1912. This proved to be quite unrealistic, and publication stopped in 1954, with several volumes remaining 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, and more. A very good, clean set. Cat. BM(NH), p. 1895; Nissen ZBI, 3799Na.