"John Abbots love of insects manifested itself in his exquisite watercolor drawings of butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, dragonflies, wasps, and spiders; in his terse notes that described his encounters with these creatures; and in a spectacular book with the unprepossessing title The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia (London, 1798), considered to be one of the finest illustrated entomological publications of its era. Born in London in 1751, Abbot journeyed to the American South in 1774 to collect and draw insects and birds for natural history collectors in Britain. Although he had had ambitions as a young man to join the ranks of Londons natural history illustrators, he never returned to Britain, living most of his long life in Georgia, where he made thousands of watercolor drawings of insects and supplied thousands of insect specimens to his British, European, and American clients. Despite his accomplishments as a naturalist and an artist, he is little known today. This book aims to rectify this omission by detailing his activities as a natural history artist, a specimen hunter, and a naturalist, and by claiming a space for him as a major figure in the history of early American natural history"-- Provided by publisher.