The butterflies of North America : Titian Peale's lost manuscript / [by Titian Ramsay Peale II] ; foreword by Ellen V. Futter ; preface and scientific captions by David A. Grimaldi ; introduction by Kenneth Haltman.

"The American artist and naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale II (1799-1885) had a passion for butterflies, and throughout his long life he wrote and illustrated an ambitious manuscript on the butterflies of North America. This work, along with a companion volume on caterpillars, was never published, and resides today in the Rare Book Collection of the American Museum of Natural History's Library in New York. Now, Peale's color plates, lovingly prepared for the printer by the artist over one hundred years ago, are published for the first time in this beautiful volume. More than two hundred hand-painted works of art illustrate the life cycle of hundreds of butterfly and moth species, in a comprehensive and dazzling collection, equivalent in scope and beauty to Audubon's Birds of America"--Page [4] of cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-249) and index.