PREFACE. 



The present work is designed to provide entomologists and tourists with a compre- 

 hensive illustrated guide to the study of European Macro-Lcpidoptcra, all previous 

 works on the subject (with the exception of a small pocket manual including the 

 Butterflies only, and now nearly out of print) relating solely to British species. 

 After due consideration, it was determined to base the work upon Berge's " Schmet- 

 terlingsbuch," the best and most widely-used German book of this kind, which 

 has already gone through five editions in Germany, and has had the advantage of 

 the successive revision of several eminent entomologists of great experience. The 

 German work being chiefly confined to the species of Central Europe, the plan of 

 the English edition has been extended to include descriptions of the whole of the 

 species inhabiting Europe proper, according to the catalogue published by Stauclinger 

 and Wocke in 187 1, with additions bringing the subject down to the present time. 

 Large additions have likewise been made to every part of the work, rendering it 

 one of the most complete which has hitherto been published, either in England or 

 on the Continent ; and a series of additional plates has been added, in order to 

 illustrate the Macro- Lcpidoptcra more fully. 



British species are marked with an asterisk. 



It has not been thought advisable to give more synonymy than seemed abso- 

 lutely necessary; and English names, which are now but little used, are also only 

 inserted occasionally. 



