PREFACE. 



I believe that the present Catalogue will supply a want that has 

 long been felt by many entomologists, and though it may be far 

 from perfect, it will, I trust, be acceptable to the students of the 

 •earlier stages of North American Lepidoptera. In its compilation I 

 have occupied a good portion of the spare time at my command for 

 three years past, and have carefully examined every publication that 

 has been accessible to me. I know that many references may possibly 

 have been omitted, the works in which they occur not being within 

 my reach, but I trust that few if any species have been overlooked 

 altogether. Should such be the case, however, I shall be greatly 

 indebted to my entomological friends if they will point them out to 

 me, as it is my intention to issue a supplement to this list once a 

 year, and thus keep up with the knowledge of what descriptions 

 have been recorded. In the nomenclature I have followed the cata- 

 logue of W. H. Edwards in the Diitmce; Grote's Check List (1882) in 

 the Macro-Lepidoptcra ; Professor Fernald in the TortricidcE; Stainton, 

 Clemens, and Chambers in the Tiiicida; and Lord Walsingham in the 

 Fterophoi'idce. Of the two latter families no catalogue of our species 

 exists, and I therefore ask for indulgence should any errors in the 

 sequence of the genera or otherwise be detected. It has been my 

 aim to make the references as clear but at the same time as brief as 

 possible, and I have, as will be seen, arranged all descriptions 

 according to the date of their publication. When the words (qviotes 

 Harris, e. g^ occur after the name of the describer, it will be under- 

 stood that the test of the description has been used; but when the 

 words {after Riley or Abb. Sm., etc.) are found, it will mean that the 

 drawing or engraving has been borrowed from these authors. In all the 

 species, where known to me, the food-plant has been given, except in 

 the case of the Arctias and in Agrotis, the former being almost general 

 feeders, and the latt.er living chiefly on grasses and low herbaceous 

 plants. If a reference is followed by the word (brief), it signifies that 

 the same is but a mere mention, often perhaps only a food-plant, but 

 it has been deemed advisable to include such notices. In the appendix 

 are a few species not referable to any known insects, and I have 

 added a short list of some papers which may be of value to the stu- 

 dents of transformations. I should like also to call attention to the 

 admirable "life histories" by Messrs. Riley, French, Edwards, Saun- 

 ders, Packard, H. H. Clark, and others, which are scattered through 

 Entomological Reports, both vState and National, the Canadian 

 Entomologist, "Papilio," "Entomologica Americana," and kindred 

 publications, papers which may advantageously be studied by future 



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