A Monograph of the Genus Teracolus. Pts I-XI (all published)

Description:

Fine illustrated monograph on this group of Pierid butterflies. Originally planned in 24 parts, only 11 were published. The title page and index were issued in 1914. Fine hand-coloured plates are numbered 1, 1a, 2-43. Very scarce.

Emily Mary Bowdler Sharpe (1868-c.1928) was a pioneering British entomologist. Emily was one of the ten daughters of ZSL’s first Librarian, Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909), who was instrumental in encouraging women to work in zoology, and who inspired his daughters to take up work in the field of natural history. While Emily’s sisters worked as colourists and illustrators, she enrolled on a career at the British Museum (1890-1907), where she produced many scholarly articles, mainly on the museum’s African Lepidoptera collections. While specimens were generally collected by men, ‘in the 19th century it became increasingly common for women to do the actual science’ (John Bielby); Emily made important contributions in the fields of taxonomy, geographical distribution, and classification of African Lepidoptera. She was the first woman to feature as the main author of a paper in Proceedings of the Zoological Society.

Condition

4to, orig. brown cloth, gilt, lightly rubbed, minor bumps to top corners. Owner's book-plate. Plates clean. Very good.