Preface

It is now twenty years since the completion of Doubleday, Hcw-itson, and Westwood’s “Genera of Diurnal Lcpidoptera”, a work whichincluded a complete Catalogue of all the species then known. Thegreat advance which has since been made in our knowledge of thisgroup, has rendered necessary another Catalogue brought down to thepresent date, a want which has hitherto been only partially suppliedby various monographs and catalogues of limited extent.

Although full materials for a natural arrangement of all the spe-cies could not bo obtained, it was thought better to attempt somekind of arrangement, however imperfect, than to place the species al-phabetically. Those species which are entirely unclassed will be foundat the end of their genus, either under a line, or in alphabetical order.The unclassed Hesperidce are included under Pamphila . The fol-lowing genera, among others, must be understood to be only provisio-nally retained in their entirety: Acreea, Axiocerses, Plebeius, Thecla ,Pieris, and Papilio. It is to be regretted that Mr. Butler’s revisionof the genera of Pierince was published too late to bo made use of.

The great length to which this work has extended, necessarilyprecludes the addition of a Bibliography, but a list of authors’ nameshas been drawn up, which will to some extent compensate for theomission. Those authors whose works have been examined througoutare marked thus (*), and those a part only of whose works were ac-cessible, thus: (f).

Some slight errors in the dates of publication of certain workswhich affect the synonymy, will be found corrected in the Appendix ,and some typographical errors in the Index; but it has not beenthought necessary to add a list of errata.

A repeated number followed by a letter indicates a doubt as towhether the second species may not he a synonym or variety of thefirst. Intercalated species are indicated by a repeated number followedby “bis”, and, in the Appendix , also by the signs (*f) &c,