

PEEFACE. 



In the present state of our knowledge of the British Lepi- 

 doptera it seems evident that such a work as I have under- 

 taken is not to be lightly dealt with. Observers in these 

 Islands are so numerous, so widely scattered, so closely at- 

 tentive to the habits of insects and of their larvae, and so 

 enterprising in searching out their most secret haunts, that 

 a history, to be satisfactory, must contain a good deal more 

 than mere descriptions and localities; must, indeed, as it 

 seems to me, furnish details far beyond what are often con- 

 sidered to be adequate in a descriptive work. My aim is, 

 therefore, not only to furnish original and accurate descrip- 

 tions of the perfect insects, and the most reliable descrip- 

 tions obtainable of their larvse and pupiB, but also such 

 particulars of their habits and ways, drawn from personal ex- 

 perience and the most reliable records, as shall present them 

 to the reader as creatures which enjoy their lives, and fill 

 their allotted positions, before they take a more permanent 

 place in the museum or the cabinet. With this view I have 

 ransacked such periodicals as The Zoologist^ Tlie Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine, Tlic Entomologist, Tlie Naturalist, The 

 Young Naturalist, and others, for the records of personal 

 observations as they have appeared from month to month 



