P i; K FA (' K. 



W'liKN 1 coiiiinciiccd tilt" present Work in l^Ol), I did so midcr the ini|ir('ssiiiii 

 tii;it Jjepidopterists i^'enerally \vonhl be as iirateful 1o me, for the time and 

 ial)()nr w Incli I devoted to it, as I have always felt to those who have assisted 

 in acenrately delineatini^ these heantiful insects whieli all admire : from May 

 1S()5 (when 1 first beu:an to publish deseri])tions and illustrations of Exotie 

 Lepido])tera), to July 1873, I had added 708 'j;ood species to those previously 

 known to Science, of these 57 Avere described lor the first time in " Lepidoptera 

 i]xotica"; 1 had i^'ivcn representations of ()7(5 s])ecies, illustrated by 8-") I figures. 

 2'M) of wliicli spi'cies, illustrated l)y ;>-")S li'^'ures, had appeared in the prrsciit 

 Work: notwithstandini^ this, so far from receiviuii^ the "blessings" to Avhicli 

 .1 have referred in my " Advertisement, " I have met with the greatest discour- 

 aucment ; in fact, excepting from the Presidents of the Entomological Society, 

 my kind friend Mr. Druce, my self-sacrificing publisher Mr. Janson, and a 

 ( lioMii few at home and abroad, my evening labours through eight weary 

 years have elicited reproaches rather than thanks; and this AVork, instead of 

 rrceiving fair supi)ort from Lepidopterists, has been a burden both to Mr. 

 •lanson and myself. 



Having then given a sufficient reason why " Lepidoptera Exotica" sliould 

 terminate with the first volum<>, I will now proceed to give a further explana- 

 tion of the motives which have induced me to abandon my former Avell-meant 

 l)ut rash determination to figure all the Lepidoptera w hich I described : — In 

 the first place, I lound that, as I advanced in the study of the Order, I was 

 enabled by degrees to comprehend more easily, without the aid of illustrations, 

 tile descriptions of others; and I began to see that figiu-cs were not such an 

 al)s()lute necessity as I once imagined them to be: in the second place, I found 

 that so many Collections which arrived in this country teemed with novelties, 

 that either many beautiful and distinct species must remain unnamed in our 

 cabinets, or the bright dream of figuring the whole of them must be dissii)ated ; 

 of these two evils I w'as consti-ained to choose the less, the consequence of 

 which has been the publication of several papers, containing numerous descrip- 

 tions of new species, none of which I have promised to figure, and many of 



