Leipzig, Johann Christoph Gollner, 1758. 4to (24.6 x 19.5 cm). 38 pp.; three hand-coloured engraved plates. Later greenish-grey boards. Marbled endpapers.

One of a series of smaller and rarer works (this one being very rare) published by Jacob Christian Schaeffer (1754-1828), a clergyman-naturalist - a phenomenon characteristic of the Enlightenment. He published a number of illustrated natural history works, mostly on insects, but also on birds and fungi of southern Germany, between 1752 and 1778. The work contains detailed observations of the anatomy, ontogeny, and behaviour of these insects. In the top margin of the first title a small printed label of "Bibliothèque d'Histoire naturelle de Dr Maurice Royer". Maurice Royer (1878-1942) was a French entomologist and Hemiptera-specialist. The plates are very nice and scientifically accurate. Boards rather soiled and a bit sunned; title page rather toned, the other leaves less so and in all a very good copy. Hagen II, p. 113; Horn-Schenkling, 19040; Nissen ZBI, 3643.