Rare description of 21 ground beetles found in the former Habsburg Empire (also known at the time of publication as the Austrian Empire, roughly North-East Italy, Austria, parts of South-East Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, and Croatia) and Asia. The work was written by Anton Alois Palliardi (1799-1873), a member of the prominent Czech Palliardi family (Italian origins). Palliardi was a scientist with a broad interest in different subjects. He worked in Franzensbad (now Františkovy Láznì, Czech Republic), focussing on the local volcano, studying it to see if it was still active or not. Additionally, he worked as a taxonomist, becoming the first scientific describer of a subspecies of the white water lily, he studied beetles, and he was the first to document the occurrence of the giant carpenter spider in Loket, Czech Republic. Lastly, he became best knwon as an amateur ornithologist and his work can be considered the beginning of Czech ornithology when in 1852 he published his work on the systematic survey of the birds of Bohemia.
With an oval black stamp of the "Naturforschenden Gesellschaft des Osterlandes" (founded in 1817, disbound in 1945, in Altenburg, Thüringen) on the title page. Occasional minor browning and foxing. Otherwise in good condition. WorldCat 1250338688 (18 copies).