The Classification of Moths 
fact out of sight, is necessarily defective, and as unnatural as it 
would be for a man to lop off the branches of a tree, and then, 
laying them down side by side, declare, as he contemplated the 
result of his labors, “This is a tree scientifically arranged." In¬ 
asmuch, however, as in books and cabinets serial order must be 
preserved, the best that the student can do is to collocate those 
forms, which display some traces of likeness, and give some hint 
of their common origin. 
Exceedingly different views have been entertained by natural¬ 
ists in recent years in reference to the matters which we are dis¬ 
cussing, and various schemes of systematic arrangement have 
been evolved, many of which are contradictory, and not a few 
of which appear to the unprejudiced to be more ingenious than 
natural. Inasmuch as this book is intended for the use not so 
much of advanced students, as of those who are entering upon the 
study of the subject, it does not seem to the writer worth while 
to encumber these pages with what would necessarily be a 
lengthy recital of the various schemes for classification to which 
he has alluded. He is inclined to regard the scheme which has 
been adopted by Sir George F. Hampson in the preparation of his 
great work upon the moths of the world, which is now being 
issued by the Trustees of the British Museum, as upon the whole 
as satisfactory as any which has recently been evolved. Inas¬ 
much, however, as Dr. Harrison G. Dyar has quite recently pub¬ 
lished a List of the Lepidoptera of the United States, which is 
certain for many years to come to be used very largely by Ameri¬ 
can students in arranging their collections, it has seemed upon 
the whole to be best to conform the text of the present volume 
to the serial arrangement given in Dr. Dyar’s List, although the 
writer differs very positively from the learned author of that work 
in his views as to the position which should be held in relation 
to each other of a number of genera. The last word in reference 
to the classification of the insects contained in this group has 
certainly not yet been spoken by any one, and we are very far 
from having attained in our studies to conclusions which may be 
accepted as final. 
For the assistance of students the writer herewith gives a 
key to the families which are represented in this book, which is. 
based upon the key given by Sir George F. Hampson in the first 
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