INTE(3DITCTION 



■ Tho Phala-nida' arc a laniily «>1' mollis of ijrcaf cxlciit. There arc ciiflit 

 hiiiulriMl species of lliis family ciinmciafed in StaiuliiigiT and Wocke's Cata- 

 logue of Ihe Lepidopleia of Europe. In tlH> pn'sml work, between three 

 and four lunidred species are. (lescrihed, and it is not unlikely that nearly a 

 thousand species will be Ibund on the continent north of IMexico and the 

 West Indies. The limits to which this work is conlined an; all of America 

 north of Mexico and the West Indies, z.c, all north of Ihe southern boundary 

 of tko United States, includini< IJrilish America, Arctic America, and fJreen- 

 land, as the latter beh)nirs to the same (cireumi)olar) fauna as Arctic Amer- 

 ica, while the insects of the coast of Northern l>abrador are in many cases 

 identical witii those of Greenland. 



1 will now enumerate the sources from which iny material has been 

 (leiived, beginnin -; with the Arctic regioiss, Lal)rador, British America, and 

 going down by way of the alpine summits and low^lands of New England to 

 the Middle and Southern Atlantic States, thence to the Southeastern States, 

 to the Trans-Mississippi States, to Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region, 

 closing with the Pacitic region, beginning with Vancouver Island and ending 

 with Southern California. The acknowledgments are made in this order in 

 givins{ the habitats of the diiferent species: 



1. Specimens of geometrid larva' and adult Glancop(eri/.r {unn Polaris 

 Bay, Northern Greenland, collected by Dr. E Bessels, the scientist of the 

 United States Polaris Expedition. Specimens from Greenland, Iceland, 

 Lapland, and the Swiss Alps, named and forwarded by Dr. O..Staudinger. 



2. Collections made in Southern Lal)rador, Straits of Belle; Isle, l)y 

 myself and members of the Williams College Expedition to Laljrador and 

 Greenland, in 1860. Larger collections made by myself along the coast, 

 linm the Straits of Belle Isle to Hopedale, with specimens received from 

 Okkak, Labi-ador, tln'ouirh the Moravian missionaries. 



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