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Les Coleopteres: Organisation; Moeurs; Chasse; Collections; Classification; Iconographie et Histoire Naturelle des Coleopteres d"Europe [The Beetles: Organization; Morals; Hunting; Collections; Classification; Iconography and Natural History of European Coleoptera]

Les Coleopteres: Organisation; Moeurs; Chasse; Collections; Classification; Iconographie et Histoire Naturelle des Coleopteres d"Europe [The Beetles: Organization; Morals; Hunting; Collections; Classification; Iconography and Natural History of European Coleoptera] by Rothschild, Jules (editor)

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Seller: Biomed Rare Books LLC, ABAA, ILAB
Title
Les Coleopteres: Organisation; Moeurs; Chasse; Collections; Classification; Iconographie et Histoire Naturelle des Coleopteres d"Europe [The Beetles: Organization; Morals; Hunting; Collections; Classification; Iconography and Natural History of European Coleoptera]
Author
Rothschild, Jules (editor)
Seller
Biomed Rare Books LLC, ABAA, ILAB (United States)
Description
Paris: Rothschild, J., 1876. First edition. HUNDREDS OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIMENS IN 48 HAND-COLORED ENGRAVED PLATES. This volume is one of three published in the series, "Musee Entomologique Illustre, Histoire Naturelle Iconographique des Insectes publiee par une reunion d'entomologistes Francais et etrangers Sous la Direction de J. Rothschild. [Illustrated Entomological Museum, Iconographic Natural History of Insects published by a meeting of French and foreign entomologists under the direction of J. Rothschild.]" 21x27.5 hardcover, 3/4 leather with marbled paper covers, leather spine with raised bands, gilt red leather label, marbled endpapers, bookplate of Robert L. Chevalier MD to front paste-down, contemporary ink inscription top of front free endpaper, [i-iv], 384 pp, 335 wood engravings, 48 engraved plates with hand coloring and facing tissue guards. Light wear to cover edges, light foxing of endpapers, light browning to plates and tissue guards. Very good minus in custom archival mylar cover. JULES ROTHSCHILD (1838 – 1900), Honorary Consul of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen in 1866, made a French citizen in 1867, Jules Rothschild founded a publishing house in Paris. In 1855, he was noticed by the botanist Joseph Decaisne of the Institute, who encouraged him to open the "Librairie de la Société botanique de France. Until the mid- 1880s , he published numerous works there relating to insects and flowering plants. He was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1878, at which time he published the remarkable Musée entomologique illustré: natural iconographic history of insects (offered here). In 1880, Stéphane Mallarmé offered him the essay Les Dieux antiques, a new illustrated mythology after George William Cox. The publishing house that bears his name then moved to 13 rue des Saints-Pères. One of the last books he published was Plaisirs et jeux by Gaston Vuillier (1900), a remarkable album in large quarto format illustrated with heliogravures , a rather rare technique at the time, and printed in 3,000 copies on fine paper. Plate 48 from Rothschild's Histoire Naturelle Iconographique des Insectes was reproduced in MS Engel's Innumerable Insects: The Story of the Most Diverse and Myriad Animals on Earth, Featuring Illustrations from One of the World's Great Rare Book Collections. American Museum of Natural History (2018). The legend to this figure illustrates the complexity of insect behavior: "A splash of colorful beetles and some examples of aposematic coloration. The large beetle at center (Meloe variegatus) and the black beetle at its far left (Meloe proscarabaeus) are blister beetles, the males of which secrete a defensive chemical called cantharidin, which they offer to the female as a nuptial gift at mating. The female covers her eggs with cantharidin as a protection against predators. Interestingly, the black-headed cardinal beetle between the two blister beetles uses its red color to warn predators that it, too, is toxic, but it must collect its chemical defense by licking cantharidin off the backs of blister beetles."

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