Arcana Entomologica - Westwood, John Obadiah

Hardcover. English. William Smith. 1845 standard Edition. Two volumes bound in one. I: 192 pp. & II: 191 pp illustrated with 96 plates. Number 68 numbered twice, making 96 plates. This book was published with plates in either colored or uncolored states. This copy has the plates in the uncolored state.

The wide-ranging selection of extraordinary species are both described and pictured by the author: John Obadiah Westwood (22 December 1805 - 2 January 1893) was an English entomologist and archaeologist also noted for his artistic talents. Born in Sheffield, he studied to be a lawyer but abandoned that for his scientific interests. He became a curator and later professor at Oxford University, having been nominated by his friend and patron the Reverend Frederick William Hope, whose donation was the basis of the Hope Collection at Oxford. He was also a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Westwood was a Fellow of the Linnean Society and president of the Entomological Society of London (1852—1853). Among the prominent writers and naturalists he associated with was James Rennie, whom he assisted in the editing of Gilbert White's The Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne in 1833. (Wikipedia).