FOREWORD 



George Paul Engelhardt (1871-1942) devoted most of his life to 

 nature studies, but his chief entomological interest for over 40 years was 

 the lepidopterous family Aegeriidae. His approach to the study of this 

 group was that of the field biologist and began with rearings of local 

 species in the neighborhood of Brooklyn, N. Y. Thereafter, as he built 

 his extensive collection, he followed through with biological and ecological 

 studies and made trips to the several sections of the United States, Alaska, 

 Europe, Central America, and British Columbia, collecting and rearing 

 from larvae and observing the behavior and peculiar habits of the species 

 of these regions. He thereby got an accurate and comprehensive bio- 

 logical picture of the American aegeriid fauna, discovered many new life 

 histories, and was able to establish the more intimate relationships of 

 several supposedly different species through their host-plant associations 

 and the discovery of intergrading forms. His final objective was a mono- 

 graph of the American Aegeriidae and a reclassification of that group upon 

 the basis of structural characters coordinated with biological habits and 

 host associations. This objective was only partially realized, for he died 

 before he could prepare more than the preliminary draft of his manuscript. 



For many years close collaboration existed between Mr. Engelhardt and 

 the lepidopterists of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, 

 whose headquarters are at the United States National Museum. His collec- 

 tion and manuscripts were willed to the National Museum, and it was his 

 hope that that institution would publish his work. During the years 1939, 

 1940, and 1941, Mr. Engelhardt spent his winters at Washington working 

 out, in collaboration with August Busck, the generic classification and in- 

 corporating the genitalic characters of the moths into a revised classifica- 

 tion. At Mr. Busck's suggestion, drawings of male and female genitalia 

 were made by Mrs. Mary F. Benson, of the Bureau of Entomology and 

 Plant Quarantine, for the proposed paper. Mr. Engelhardt had planned 

 his work on broad lines and had hoped to include larval and pupal charac- 

 ters in the definitions of categories but as the immature stages of several of 

 the genera were still unknown this was not feasible ; so at his request I 

 prepared a short description of the larval and pupal characters of the 

 family. 



When the manuscript was examined after Mr. Engelhardt's death it was 

 found to be substantially complete for the treatment of the species and 

 their genera, but, as stated above, it was only a preliminary draft, with no 

 introduction and no general discussion of the biology or previous sys- 

 tematic treatments of the group as a whole. The manuscript also required 



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