INTRODUCTION. XX1 
The Table given on the following pages (pp. xxii-xxvii) will show the distribution 
of the genera in the eight divisions into which we have for convenience divided our 
region *, as well as their extension north and south, and their representation in the 
West-Indian Islands (exclusive of Trinidad and Tobago); but it must be observed 
that we have insufficient data for a trustworthy comparison with the Antillean fauna f. 
‘The gaps in the distribution of the widely-ranging Neotropical forms merely indicate 
that we have not yet received specimens from those districts. 
An enormous number cf specimens have passed through our hands for the purposes 
of this work, including many lent by the late Dr. Staudinger, principally from Chiriqui, 
and by Mr. Schaus, from Mexico. They have been contributed mainly by the following 
collectors :—From Mexico by Messrs. Baron, Becker, Brooks, Buchan-Hepburn, Elwes, 
Fenochio, Forrer, Gaumer, Hoge, Mathew, Morrison, Richardson, Riimeli, Schumann, 
H. H. Smith, Trujillo, J. J. Walker, and myself; from British Honduras by Messrs. 
Blancaneaux and Roe; from Guatemala by Messrs. Champion, Conradt, Hague, Salvin, 
and myself; from the Republic of Honduras (including Ruatan Island) by Messrs. 
Gaumer, Whitely, and Wittkugel; from Nicaragua by Messrs. Belt, Janson, and 
Richardson ; from Costa Rica by Messrs. Rogers, Van Patten, and Zurcher; from 
Panama (including Taboga and the Pearl Islands) by Messrs. Arcé, Champion, 
M‘Leannan, Ribbe, Trétsch, and J. J. Walker. 
Mr. Smith collected in Mexico, in 1888-89, chiefly at the following places :—Atoyac, 
at the foot of the eastern slope of the Volcan de Orizaba, ‘Teapa in T'abasco, various 
localities in Guerrero (from an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet down to Acapulco on 
the Pacific coast), Cuernavaca, &c. Mr. Richardson was mostly engaged in ornithology, 
but he sent us various butterflies from time to time, chiefly from the Mexican State of 
Tamaulipas and from Matagalpa in Nicaragua. Mr. Schaus’s and Mateo Trujillo’s 
collections were made mainly at Jalapa, Coatepec, Cordova, and Misantla, in Vera 
Cruz, the most productive district in Mexico for butterflies. Most of these places, as 
* Salvador cannot be included, owing to want of sufficient material; the Rhopalocerous fauna, however, so 
far as we know, is very similar to that of the central portions and Pacific slope of Guatemala. Mazatlan and 
Tampico are grouped with Northern Mexico. 
t The only list of any importance is that of Lucas, in Ramon de la Sagra’s work on the Natural History of 
Cuba, but several of the South-American species enumerated by him from that island have not again been 
recorded from there. We have, however, included them in the Table on his authority, but with a ?. 
