776 TMK BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENCLAXl). 



Summary of our knowledge of the early stages. 60 little is 

 kin)\vii of tiie traustbniiutious of this large sultfaiiiily. and 80 many inaccu- 

 rate general statements have been made regarding thcni, that I have thought 

 it would lie useful to bring together in a connected form such information 

 as is available, as a starting point for future investigation. The Lemonii- 

 nae have been frequently looked upon as an immense reservoir of very 

 incon^'ruous forms, and this has sometimes been an excuse for referring 

 here forms which were aberrant or little understood, as a happy means of 

 ridding tiie writer of further considering the difticulties in his way. But 

 now that Constant Bar has cleared up some of tlie errors made by Stoll'*, 

 this opinion is no longer justifiable. And, thanks to the recent investiga- 

 tions of the perfect forms l)v Bates, Godman and Salvin, the integrity of 

 the group can no longer be doubted. 



The sources of our information with regard to the early stages of the 

 Lemoniinae are exceedingly scattered. For the European species we 

 have the illustrations of Hiibner and Curtis and the statements of many 

 writers, together with specimens now available through Staudinger, whose 

 inclusion of the caterpillars and cin-ysalids of the European species in his 

 sale catalogues has been of great advantage to the student of butterflies. 

 For the Asiatic species we have only the information given by Moore con- 

 cerning a single species published in his Lepidoptera of Ceylon, and some 

 general statements regarding the eggs, by Doherty, in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal for 188(5. For the North American species, we 

 have the admirable and varied illustrations which Edwards has given in his 

 Butterflies of North America, concerning the transformations of two of our 

 species, and this gentleman has kindly sent me for examination some 

 specimens which he had preserved, to enable me to make further autoptic 

 study of them. For South American species we have reference first of all 

 to the illustrations long ago published by Stoll', in his continuation of 

 Cramer's Papillons exotiques ; the two rather brief notices by Constant 

 Bar contained in letters addressed to Boisduval, and published in the Bulle- 

 tin of the French entomological society for 1854 and 185G ; and finally 

 a few words only by Bates in his different papers on South American 

 Lepidoptera. Nearly all of these publications refer us to the mature 

 caterpillar and chrysalis ; Edwards only has figured any of the eggs ; the 

 egg of the European species is known only by brief description ; those of 

 the Asiatic by the brief notice by Doherty ; the caterpillar in its earliest 

 stage just from the egg is known for only two or tiu-ce species of a single 

 genus from North America, for \\'hich we arc indebted entirely to Mr. Ed- 

 wards. 



Omitting reference to the Libytheinae, which Bates included in this 



*The caterpillar referred by Stoll' to Sta- belong to Mecbanitis polymnia, of quite 

 laclilis euterpe (pi. 1, fig. 4) is said by I'-w to another family. See above, ]i. 711, note. 



