INTRODUCTION. 
Tue three Volumes of the Lepidoptera Heterocera of the Central-American fauna now 
completed deal with twenty-eight Families of this Order of Insects. Vol. I. extends to 
the end of the Deltoide; Vol. II. to the end of the Pyralide, with the Supplement 
and Appendix; Vol. III. includes the Plates only. The Micro-Lepidoptera are being 
dealt with by Lord Walsingham in Volume IV. 
The twenty-eight Families worked out by me may be analysed thus :-— 
The Sphingide are represented by 135 species, forty-six of which are peculiar to 
our region; of the remainder, fifteen have also been recorded from North America 
and several have a very wide range in South America. 
The Castniide include twenty species, ten of which, so far as at present known, are 
peculiar to Central America ; six inhabit Mexico, and one of them is recorded also 
from the United States. The South-American forms are much more numerous. 
The tropical Augeriide are very little known, but doubtless include a large number 
of species; Messrs. H. H. Smith and G. C. Champion collected, however, a considerable 
number of them, mostly in Mexico and the State of Panama. Of this family, eight 
genera and forty-four species are enumerated, forty-one of the latter being as yet 
only known from our region. 
The Agaristide include comparatively few American forms: nineteen species are 
enumerated from our region, eight of these not having been obtained elsewhere ; seven 
of the latter are described for the first time. 
The Zygenide, now called Syntomide by Sir George Hampson, are very largely 
represented throughout tropical America. From our region fifty-nine genera, two of 
which are treated as new, and 208 species, with seventy new, are here recorded; of this 
number, 152 appear to be peculiar to Central America. 
