IV PREFACE. 



or monographed, tlie present work will be found to include 

 larj^o additions and corrections from other sources, both 

 published and unpublished. 



]\Ictaniorphoses are not included ; they would iiave greatly 

 swelled the size of the book, and would be much more useful if 

 gathered together in a separate catalogue, like that of the 

 metamorphoses of North-An)erican Lephloptera published by 

 the late Mr. Hariy Edwards, Fossil species have also been 

 omitted. These are not numerous, and Entomologists interested 

 in this branch of the subject will find ample information in the 

 works of Mr. S. H. Scudder. 



The whole of the proofs have been carefully read, both with 

 the printer's MS. and afterwards with the original lists; but I 

 am well aware that errors and omissions are unavoidable in a 

 work of this nature, especially in a gixnip like the Lejndoptera 

 Heterocera, where the limits of families and genera are often 

 so ill-defined that the same species is liable to be placed in widely 

 separated genera by different authors. Hence many species 

 will probably be sought for under genera from which they have 

 been removed ; and will afterwards be found in other places. 

 It is hoped that the number of actual errors is comparatively 

 small ; and those detected during the progress of the work have 

 been corrected in the Appendix, which likewise includes all 

 omissions and additions which have come under my notice up 

 to May 1, 1892. 



Specific names used generically, such as Cossus, have been 

 rejected. This practice, which is admitted to be objectionable, 

 has made so little progress in Entomology that it can easily be 

 suppressed. 



All merely manuscript or catalogue names, unaccompanied 

 by any description or reference, have been omitted. 



I quote here some passages from the Preface to my ' Catalogue 

 of Ntw'optera Odouuta,' which are equally applicable to the 

 present work : — 



" I find that initial ca})itals catch the eye so much more readily 

 than small letters, that 1 make no ajiology for employing them 



