PREFACE 
TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
Our object in the present undertaking is to incorporate in one 
Volume octavo a Catalogue of all tlie known Insects of tlie order 
Lepidoptera inhabiting Great Britain; illustrated throughout with 
figures^ reduced, where necessary, to a small size, but with a degree 
of accuracy that will enable the Entomologist to fix at once upon 
any particular species he may wish to define. 
The utility of such an undertaking, if properly conducted, will 
be readily acknowledged, as we have no Work that figures even a 
quarter of the species known at present to inhabit this country. 
Any book, therefore, must become important to the Entomologist, 
that will comprise an accurate figure of every species of insect 
included in the Order to which it belongs. 
It may be objected, that to combine so much in so small a space 
it may be necessary to reduce the figures till we lose the essential 
character. This, however, has by no means been the case. None 
of the insects have been reduced to less than an inch, and some 
hundreds are of the natural size. 
With reference to the Plates, it may not be improper to remark, 
that they have been entirely executed by the same artist (Mr. W. 
Wood, Jun.), whose accurate figures are already before the public in 
the Illustration of the Index Testaceologicus, or Catalogue of British 
and Foreign Shells, which comprises 2780 figures of distinct species. 
No pains have been spared to make the figures perfectly accu- 
rate ; and to accomplish this most essential purpose, recoui'se (where 
possible) has always been had to the Insect, which has been drawn 
