LEPIDOPTERA. 257 



The numerous variations which occur in the habits 

 of these insects, in the material of their food, and the 

 situation or construction of their dwellings, almost ex- 

 clusively concern the larvae, and little or no indication 

 of them is to be found in the imago. 



Of the Butterflies only twenty-eight genera, contain- 

 ing sixty-six species, are known in England, and these 

 are arranged in five families. Of the Moths, the known 

 species of which are constantly increasing in number, there 

 are more than one hundred families, consisting of between 

 four and five hundred genera : these containing nearly 

 two thousand species. The one hundred families are 

 arranged in nine large groups.* 



It will be easily seen that to describe the families (not 

 to mention the genera) of the Moths, would be to reduce 

 the following pages to little more than a mere table : 

 the utmost, therefore, that will be attempted as regards 

 arrangement, is to enable the reader to determine 

 first whether an insect be a Butterfly or a Moth. 

 If the former, to which of the five families, if the 

 latter, to which of the nine groups of families, it be- 

 longs.f 



First, then, with regard to distinguishing Butterflies 

 from Moths. It is not at all uncommon to find an 



* Minor subdivisions, as of sub-families, &c,, are also ia use, but it is 

 not necessary to speak more of these here. 



f In Mr. Stainton's volume on "The British Butterflies and Moths " 

 (part of the present series), the reader will find an introduction to all the 

 families of Moths, and to a large number of tbe more conspicuous species 

 of both Moths and Butterflies. In his " Manual of British Butterflies and 

 Moths" (2 vols.) the species also are described. The student who intends 

 to make real progress in the knowledge of this tribe of insects is strongly 

 advised to possess himself of the latter work. It has been largely drawn 

 from in the following pages, 



S 



