PREFACE. Ill 



easily done because the greater part of the fourth volume — the last Palearctic volume — has in the meantime 

 appeared and consequently the publication of the supplement to the entire work has been brought very near, 

 by means of which we shall be able to bring everything up to date and add all that has been newly published. 



As for the earlier volumes, I ask also for this that in judging of it the greatness of the proposed task may 

 be taken into consideration. That the authors are among the best qualified for its fulfilment and that through 

 the kindness of our patrons and friends we have succeeded in obtaining a very full and valuable illustration 

 of the fauna will certainly be acknowledged. And there can also be no doubt that the chromo artists (Werner 

 and Winter of Frankfort on the Mam and Emil Hochdanz of Stuttgart) have done their utmost to furnish 

 a production that is at least commendable. That not aU the figures or plates in such a gigantic work have been 

 equally successful, and that in the more than 40,000 figures of the "Macrolepidoptera" there have even been 

 failures at times, is indeed regrettable, but at the same time unavoidable, and I beg that such may be judg- 

 ed as leniently as has been the case with the imperfections of the earlier volumes. 



Darmstadt, November 1913. Dr. Adalbert Seitz. 



