Insecta Britannica. Diptera. Vol. I - III. [Complete].

London, Lovell Reeve, 1851-1856. Three volumes in three. 8vo (22.0 x 14.1 cm). [I (1851): vi, 314, (16); II (1853): vi, 298, (16); III (1856): xxiv, 352, (24)]; 30 engraved plates [I: I-X; II: XI-XX; III: XXI-XXX]. Uniform original pebbled and blind-tooled cloth; gilt title on the spines. Yellow endpapers. = One of the most important - and rarer - 19th-century works on British Diptera (strangely missed by Claus Nissen), as it contains the descriptions and illustrations of numerous new species of flies, mosquitos, etc., and critical revisions of those species described earlier. Written and illustrated by the British entomologist and dipterologist Francis Walker (1809-1874). This is one of Walker’s most important works. Lovell Reeve’s sales leaflet for the projected British Entomology mounted on the front pastedown of the first and second volume. There are interesting differences between the two, providing an insight on the development of the series, Insecta Britannica. Reeve’s catalogues - the first one dated April 1851 - bound in the rear of each volume, listing titles and prices, also of a long-running and not yet completed series of monographs, e.g. on Mollusca. A few skilful repairs to one spine, otherwise an excellent clean, unmarked set. Hagen II, p. 254 (60); Horn-Schenkling, 23121. Not in Nissen.