A RARELY-glimpsed collection of 18th century butterfly and moth paintings has gone online in an attempt to identify the species.

Oxford’s Natural History Museum has put the paintings of tropical insects by naturalist Williams Jones on the web.

The museum said his sixvolume manuscript, known as Jones’ Icones, contains “remarkably accurate” images of more than 750 moths and butterflies.

But many of them are the only know depictions of the species in the world, and staff hope that “citizen scientists” around the globe can help name them.

Our top stories

The museum’s head of archives Kate Santry said: “At the time that Jones made these paintings, many of the specimens he was depicting were being brought to Europe and described for the first time, most notably from Australia and the Oceanic region.

“Jones’s meticulously recorded these specimens through his paintings, and his work remains the only record of many of these important collections, a large number long-since destroyed, lost or divided amongst collectors.”

Users can register on the website and indicate their level of expertise in butterfly and moth identification.

This will allow the museum to track the identifications, and take note of those made by experts, as well as recognise the expertise of keen amateurs.

See the collection now at jonesicones.com.