ADDRESS. 



Although no order of Insects is more conspicuous for variety of form, peculiarity of development, and beauty of 

 colour, than the Lepidoptera, none have been so much neglected by scientific Entomologists. With the excep- 

 tion of European forms, few Genera have been characterised, either by British or Foreign authors. This may 

 indeed be accounted for from the difficulties connected with the systematic classification of these insects. Latreille, 

 forty years ago, well observed : " Lepidopterorum ordo entomologorum scopulus : horum insectorum etenim 



instruments cibaria simplicia ; antenna} pro sexu diverse ; metamorphoses permultorum nobis ignotse." Gen. 



'Crust, iv. 186. 



No work affording a correct idea of the Genera of this Order having been published, it appeared to Mr. E. 

 Doubleday that a work illustrative of the Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera, adapted to the present state of science 

 would be favourably received by Entomologists, and would furnish to the Student the means of investigating and 

 arranging his Collection, for which he could derive but little information from books, beyond the mere identification 

 of Species. 



The extensive collection of Diurnal Lepidoptera in the British Museum, shown by the recently published Cata- 

 logue to be one of the finest ever formed, and still rapidly increasing, constitutes the basis of the work ; and much 

 hitherto unpublished information as to their Metamorphoses and Habits has been derived from the large collections 

 of Manuscripts and Drawings in the Library of that Institution, made by Abbot in Georgia, and by the late General 

 Hardwicke in the continent of India and its Dependencies, and also from the private collections of Naturalists 

 resident in India. 



The plan of investigation adopted by Mr. Doubleday, by a most scrupulous examination not only of the parts of 

 the mouth, but also more especially of the feet and veins of the wings, was unquestionably the best adapted to remove 

 the reproach made by Latreille, and to effect a satisfactory classification of the Diurnal Lepidoptera. Unfortunately, 

 however, the various avocations of Mr. Doubleday, together with his delicate health, prevented his completing more 

 than one third of the text of the work, and on his decease the task of its completion was confided to me. The same 

 minute system of investigation has been carried on throughout my portion of the work with, I trust, some good 

 effect, both as regards the general and generic distribution of the species. It is due both to Mr. E. Doubleday 

 and myself to state that the descriptions of by far the greater number of the genera, the names only of which have 

 been pi-oposed by other writers, are now for the first time published. 



