Moscow, Zoologieskago Imperatorskago Moskovskago Universiteta, 1889. Large 4to (34.5 x 25.6 cm). 126 pp., nine tinted or coloured lithographed plates; 57 text engravings of which 23 printed in colour. Original printed wrappers.

Published in two, combined, parts. The first part, with 34 text figures, is an annotated checklist for identification purposes. The second part deals especially with the yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus (Fabricius) and contains beautifull illustrations of the ant's morphology and anatomy. The author, Nikolaj Victorovitz Nasonov (1855-1939) was a Russion hymenopterologist who published mainly on bees. "In 1879, Nasonov graduated from the University of Moscow. From 1889 to 1906 he was a professor at the University of Warsaw. From 1906 to 1921 he was director of the Zoological Museum, and from 1921 to 1931 he was director of the Laboratory of Experimental Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His principal works were on the morphology, taxonomy, faunistics, zoogeography, ecology, and embryology of insects, crustaceans, Turbellaria, and some vertebrates, such as mountain sheep and the ostrich. In 1911, Nasonov organized the publication of the comprehensive work Fauna of Russia and the Neighboring Countries, subsequently called Fauna of the USSR. Twenty-five books of this work were published under his editorship. In 1916 on Nasonov’s initiative, a commission was created in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR to study Lake Baikal and to organize the Baikal Biological Station (now the Institute of Limnology of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR)." (Antwiki). In Russian with Latin nomenclature. Spine partly split, a few pencilled marginalia, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Rare. Cat. BM(NH) p. 1393 ("Mater'yalui po estestvennoi istorii Murav'ev (Sem. Formicariae), preïmuschestvenno Rossiï"). Not in Horn Schenkling II.