Third and best edition of Ernst Hofmann's important work on the European Lepidoptera, edited by the German entomologist Arnold Spuler (1869-1937). The present set includes the fourth volume (often lacking) on European caterpillars: Die Raupen der Schmetterlinge Europas. The first two volumes provide descriptions of different butterfly-families and species, while the third contains all the plates depicting the butterflies, both male and female, with their wings opened and closed.
With the small bookplates of Lionel George Higgins on paste-down. He was a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and co-author of the Field guide to butterflies of Britain and Europe (1970). Bindings rubbed along the extremities (most notably the head of the spine of volume 1), but internally in very good condition. Nissen, ZBI 1973a.