Preface. 



Exactly a year after the completion of the second volume of the Palearctic section of the "Macrolepi- 

 doptera ot the World", we to-day offer the third to the public. The favourable reception of the volumes al- 

 ready published gives me confidence that to this also the same kind consideration will be accorded. Unlike 

 the two volumes already published the present one, with the exception of the first short section, is from the 

 pen of only one author, Mr. W. Warren, well known through his numerous important works. Of the figures 

 80 — 90% have been drawn from nature and many of them are the first reproductions of species which have 

 never been figured before. They are drawn with as much fidelity and care as the extremely low price of the 

 work permitted. Of the over 4000 figures which illustrate the Palearctic Noctuids fully */s are from originals 

 which Dr. W. Rothschild kindly placed at our disposal from the Tring Museum, for which we tender him 

 here our sincerest thanks. Without the treasures of this extremely rich museum an even approximately com- 

 plete illustration from nature would not have been possible. 



I have considered it to be of particular service to represent the North-East Asiatic species with a 

 completeness which places the numerous collectors who confine themselves to the Palearctic fauna in a po- 

 sition to determine correctly the forms received from that region. I have therefore had numerous types figured 

 from the collections of Leech, Pryer and Wileman in London, which has been done partly by Mr. Horace 

 Knight, partly by Miss P rout, in a really ideal manner, and it is a pleasant duty to me to express here my sincere 

 thanks for the care which has been bestowed on the preparation of these drawings. 



A number of further figures were taken from the types which Herr R. Pungeler obligingly placed at our 

 disposal, and thus we obtained possession of almost all the models worth figuring (about 4000 forms), and the 

 list was completed by copying the excellent figures from Sir George Hampson's masterly Catalogue, from 

 Romanoff and from Charles Oberthtjr's ,, Etudes" to fill up the lacunae. The former were likewise mostly 

 prepared from drawings by Mr. Horace Knight and can consequently, as well as the admittedly excellent 

 figures in Romanoff and Oberthur, withstand any criticism. 



Continental lepidopterists will be interested to learn that most of the Noctuids occurring in Great 

 Britain are figured from British, not from continental specimens. There exist here shades of difference, which 

 indeed, even if not considerable, have yet led several workers, e. g. Tutt, to bestow on them separate names. 

 Numerous correspondents and immature critics have incorrectly characterized such figures as „inaccurate in 

 the ground-colour", thus furnishing a proof that the differences in colouring are really distinctly noticeable even 

 by little trained eyes. I have therefore asked the author of the Noctuids to work out thoroughly Ttjtt's very 

 numerous aberrational names, although this was not originally planned and might not appear altogether adap- 

 ted to a work having such a wide scope. The size of the third volume has consequently risen not inconside- 

 rably beyond the original estimate of 40 sheets and the number of parts been increased from 25 to 33. As, how- 

 ever, the price for subscribers (about 30 shillings for 500 pages of text and over 4000 figures) is still unprece- 

 dentedly low, we thought we might reckon on their consent to this small increase. Whilst in the butterflies 

 and Bombycids a reference to the plates often rendered a description superfluous, in the Noctuids, however 

 fully figured, a characterization, though often only short, has been regularly given, in the belief that in a family 

 whose many species show such great similarity on the one hand and such variability on the other, a diagnosis 

 would be desirable under all circumstances as an effectual aid to the illustration. 



