insect

American Entomology

Thomas Say (1787-1834) was a self-taught naturalist who has come to be considered the Father of American Entomology.  In 1812 he became one of the founding/charter members of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia and actually lived at the Academy and tended its small museum for several years.  He also began publishing this book – part 1 came out in 1817 – but his participation in several scientific expeditions delayed its completion until later in the 1820s.  In this and other works he described and named over 1400 species of insects (especially beetles).

Psyche : Figures of Non-Descript Lepidopterous Insects, or Rare Moths and Butterflies From Different Parts of the World

Best known as a botanist and conchologist, Thomas Martyn (1735-1825) also published works on entomology. His Psyche is a famous — and famously rare — work, once thought to exist in only 10 copies, and while that number has been expanded to about 18, they are all different in the number of plates and pages of text (if any) that they comprise. Only 7 copies are known in U.S. libraries, and some of those are incomplete. This one, too, is a partial copy: 5 parts, with their original printed wrappers and 9 hand-colored plates (pt.1 text and all of pt.2 in facsimile).

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