PREFACE. 



In presenting the second volume of this work to my brother ento- 

 mologists I can only hope that it will meet with a? kindly a reception 

 as did the preceding one. The general approval with which the first 

 volume was received by subscribers and critics could not fail to be 

 exceedingly gratifying to an author, and the generous recognition and 

 appreciation of the labour involved in the collection and collation of 

 such a large amount of previously published (but scattered) and 

 unpublished detail has been a strong incentive to deal with the second 

 volume on the same thorough lines, and to give to every specialist 

 such material as is at present available on which to base his own 

 particular branch of work. 



The general trend of the criticism of the first volume largely 

 resolved itself into a regret that more subjects were not equally fully 

 dealt with, in other words, that the book was not larger than it was. 

 The same criticism will apply equally well to this. We have no doubt 

 that the synonymist will consider that the description of a larva might 

 well be condensed into half-a-dozen lines, and the biologist will urge 

 that the synonymy could very well be left out ; the student of variation 

 will possibly assert that the dates of appearance could be neglected, 

 and the phenological student that the description of varieties and 

 aberrations might occupy a much less important position in the work. 

 Such criticisms will no doubt almost certainly be offered by the various 

 classes of students. We suspect, too, that we shall be told that more 

 species might have been dealt with. We can only reply that one 

 cannot get a quart into a pint pot. 



It was our intention when we commenced this volume to give an 

 account of, at least, the Psychides, the Pterophorides, and the Lach- 

 neides. The first-named superfamily had quite recently been over- 

 hauled, and Ave suspected that the study of our few British species 

 would be comparatively easy, and a fairly full account of them occupy 

 but little space. Our earliest attempts to grapple with the subject 

 showed not only that there was very little accurate information avail- 

 able about the British Psychids, but that, if we were to know more 

 of the group, we should have to get a general grip of the whole Pake- 

 arctic Psychid fauna. The published details of the life-histories of our 

 British species were evidently largely erroneous, wofully incomplete, 

 and worthless for exact scientific study. Many of the species in our 

 lists were little more than names, and these wanted clothing with life 

 and meaning. The kind help of Lord Walsingham, Dr. Chapman, 

 Messrs. Bacot, Durrant, and Prout was enlisted, and the life-histories 

 of several of our British and continental species were studied in detail 

 and the result is now before you. This part of our book includes an 

 enormous amount of exact and minute work done by these gentlemen, 

 and, with our own results, is largely new. To Lord Walsingham, 

 Messrs. Durrant, Kirby, and Prout we are especially indebted for the 

 Synonymy and much that is contained in the Distribution lists ; to 

 Mr. Bacot and Dr. Chapman for help in the description of eggs, lame, 

 and pupee. To a large number of entomologists we are also indebted 



