Preface. 



The idea of a -work for tlie identification of all the known .Macrolepidoptera originatea during an excursion 

 which the editor made in Australia in the company of the late William McLeay. The suggestion put forward liy 

 this naturalist found further support in the following year in a consultation with Emiuo A. Goeldi, the then 

 director of the Zoological Museum at Eio de Janeiro, which induced me to enter into communication with 

 Dr. 0. Staudivger in order to confer with him ahout the feasibility of an extension, suiting the requirements of 

 all collectors in foreign countries, of his work on Exotic Lepidoptera, which was in the course of pubhc- 

 ation. But the imperfect technique and the absence of certain indispensable preliminary studies appeared 

 to render it impossible at the time to carry out the plan. Nevertheless I commenced to work with a 

 \iew towards a future realization of the idea. It seemed to me above all necessary to visit every faun- 

 i.stic region and subregion. as far as it might be possible, and consequently^ after leaving Australia in 

 November 1887 and having collected in South America, especially Brazil (1888^ — 89), I went to India and 

 China (1890), vsited Japan (1891 — 92) and Anterior India (1892) and finally collected on several tours in 

 Africa. I paid also special attention to the fauna of islands and made collections on the Cape Verde 

 Islands, the Canaries, Madeira, Kangaroo Island, and various islands of the Indian and Chinese seas. 



During these travels, which extended over a period of nearly 20 years, the technique in the pro- 

 duction of coloured plates had been so much improved that it now appeared possible, in spite of the 

 necessarily low price of a work for general use, to publish such a large number of sufficiently accurate 

 and useful figures that the main object of tiae work, to serve as a book of reference, might be attained. 

 Moreover, the appearance of numerous auxiliarv works encouraged us to decide definitely on the beginning 

 of the great undertaking. There was above all Kirby's Catalogue which could serve as a most essential 

 basis, and, besides, Staudinger-Rebel's Catalogue of Palearctic Lepidoptera. Without these two works the 

 present one could hardly have been attempted, and I seize the opportunity of pointing to the great 

 merit of these laborious and difficult pubhcations, which save so much time and labour and have become 

 indispensable aids to all Lepidopterists. There appeared further in quick succession the fundamental 

 works of Hampsox. Jordan. RoTiisciiiLn and many other authors, which rendered it possible to unite in an 

 abridged form in one large pubhcation the faunistic and descriptive, small and large papers by Butler, 

 Druce, Elwes, Fruhstorfer, Godman, Pagenstecher, Statjdixger, Warren, etc. etc. — the nearly hundred 

 names of especially active entomologists which might be enumerated here will be found among the authors, 

 names mentioned in this work. 



When in 1906 the publisher asked me to undertake the editorship, an agreement was soon arrived 

 at in connection with some technical firms (the lithographic works of Werner & W^inter at Frankfurt a. il.. 

 and the art reproduction works of Emh, Hochdanz at Stuttgart), and I proceeded to enter into correspon- 

 dence with specialists in the various groups of Lepidoptera. It gives me very great pleasure to express 

 also iu this place my grateful thanks to my collaborators for so kindly and readily accepting our pro- 

 positions. 



Apart from a -certain external uniformity, a strict unity of treatment was only insisted upon in 

 so far as it appeared absolutely necessary for attainmg the purpose of the work. The individual authors 

 were otherwise at hberty to follow their own methods, the task of collaboration thus being rendered as 

 agreeable as possible. The chief aim of the entire work was to create for the collector as well as the 

 scientific entomologist a very concise book which would enable him so find readily with the help of the 

 text supplemented by the plates all the more essential points of what is known about the Lepidoptera he 

 may have received. It was intended to publish a handbook which could be had at a low price and might 

 conveniently be taken on travels. 



This ground-plan explains the characteristic features of the whole work. A total of about 40 OUO 

 illustrations permits the descriptions to be as short as possible, which is absolutely necessary, if con- 

 ciseness, the most important point in a book of reference, is to be attained. It further appeared to 

 be of great assistance in this respect that the specific and varietal names were repeated at the margin and 



