INTRODUCTION. 



It is now fifteen years since this work was first begun, and during that time the 

 Diurnal Lepidoptera in our collections have been increased twofold in number ; for 

 this great wealth, to us who take pleasure in such things, we are indebted chiefly to 

 the industry of Messrs. Bates and Wallace. I well remember that some thirty years 

 ago, Mr. E. Doubleday told me that the largest collection of Rhopalocera in Europe 

 did not, he believed, exceed fifteen hundred species. At the present time my own 

 collection contains more than forty-three hundred and fifty, none of them varieties 

 only, such as have names given to them now (these I do not recognize at all), but such 

 as would have satisfied the sounder judgment of Latreille and Godart. 



When I completed my second volume, I gave a short summary of the general 

 progress made during its publication towards the study of the Diurnal Lepidoptera. 

 I did so with unalloyed pleasure, because some useful work had been accomplished. 

 I regret to say that I cannot rejoice over all that has been clone since then. Much of 

 it will obscure and render more difficult rather than elucidate and simplify — as nil 

 scientific labour ought to do — this delightful subject of inquiry. The Messrs. Felder 

 have edited the first volume of the " Reise der Fren;atte Novara " with several well- 

 drawn plates, which are interesting and of use ; but I must confess that I can better 

 employ my time than in wading through a page and a half of Latin description to 

 ascertain what minute difference they have thought worthy of a name. The same 

 gentlemen have published a " Species Lapidopterorum, " admirable for its great 

 accuracy, but marred, according to my old-fashioned notions, by scores of names, in the 

 genus Papilio alone, given to varieties which would not have been considered worthy 

 of notice when Boisduval edited his " Species General," and which they themselves do 

 not consider of specific value. Mr. Bates has described many new species — some of 

 them of great beauty and novelty — from the collections of Messrs. Salvin and Godman, 

 of which we have been long promised illustrations. Mr. Wallace's paper on " The 

 Papilionida' of the Malayan Region " is one of great interest. Bremer has given us 

 some of the butterflies of Siberia, and Yollenhoven the Pieridre of the Dutch possessions 

 in the East. Mr. Butler, a lepidopterist of great promise, now filling the place formerly 

 occupied by Mr. Doubleday at the British Museum, is doing some good work, but 

 unfortunately, in his too great eagerness for distinction, has committed many errors 

 and added many useless synonyms to our nomenclature. The volume now completed 

 contains one hundred and ninety-nine new species, and three hundred and seventy- 

 three figures. Three parts (including the British Museum Catalogue), towards a 

 monograph of the Lycsenidse, containing one hundred and twenty-one new species, and 

 three hundred and eighty-five figures, have been published by the same author. 



Mr. Watson and Mr. Labrey, both of Bowdon, near Manchester, have been for 





