58 



X. Edition to Clemens (1858) which date I take as the com- 

 mencement of an era in which American Lepidopterists are 

 to catalogue the different Families of Lepidoptera and lay foun- 

 dation for present and future discoveries. Mr. W. H. Edwards 

 describes and catalogues our Butterflies, as also Mr. S. H. 

 Scudder; D r Clemens writes on the Spliuiyidae, Tortricidae 

 and Tineidae, D r - Packard on the Zijgaemdae, Bomlnjcidae 

 and Geometridae, I, myself, catalogue the Spliinyidae, Nodnidae 

 and Pyralidae, Mr. C. T. Robinson, besides working with me, 

 commences to figure the Tortricidae and Mr. V. T. Chambers 

 takes up the Tineidae afresh. Finally Prof. C. H. Fernald 

 catalogues the Tortricidae and reclassifies them, Mr. Henry 

 Edwards works up the Sesiidae and, with the publication of 

 my New Check List (1882), this Renascence period comes 

 to an end. These are its principal Authors and their work. 

 It spans the time from D 1 '- Morris Catalogue to my New 

 Check List. It has identified our more usual forms, arranged 

 them scientifically and in correspondence with the views of 

 the best European writers, besides performing a great deal of 

 original and enduring work of its own. From this time the des- 

 cription of our Butterflies and Moths is undertaken with greater 

 security and this period is further notable from the appearance 

 of a journal, Papilio, entirely devoted to the Lepidoptera. 

 Above all, the work of determining the private collections 

 throughout the country has been performed and has greatly 

 furthered the interest in the study. The first period of 

 North American Lepidopterology was that of Abbot, Boisduval, 

 the elder Leconte, Say, Peck, Harris, Gosse, Kirtland and 

 their historian, our old friend D r - J. G. Morris. The second 

 period, which I call the Renascence, alluding to the re-rising 

 of the study since Say's death, has certainly been a fruitful 

 one, during which a great deal of work was performed with 

 good humor and at considerable selfsacrifice. It deserves 

 a better fate than that any of its workers should have their 

 laurels assailed 4 by those who to day rest in their shade. 

 It is not that very many others do not materially assist, 

 but the writers above mentioned are those who performed 

 the most work in the Butterflies and Moths and whose names 



