X. PREFACE. 



the publication of the ist volume, that an extensive " general 

 index ought to be printed in addition to the long "special" index 

 provided with each volume, to make the contents more readily available 

 to the generalising biologist. In response to our offer in the 

 preface to volume iii to print such an index should any lepidopterist 

 be willing to compile one, our friend the Reverend George Wheeler, 

 M.A., kindly offered to do so and we have great pleasure in adding 

 his excellent contribution to our work to this volume. We have 

 no doubt the labour involved will be fully appreciated by those 

 biologists who use the work seriously. 



Whilst we regret that our subscription list meets with no better 

 support from the British lepidopterist, who appears often to be 

 unwilling to extend his knowledge in the direction indicated in 

 these volumes, we have to thank that ever-increasing number of 

 supporters who purchase the work through the publishers and with- 

 out whose active aid the publication of the work could hardly 

 be seriously persisted in. At the same time we do most heartily 

 thank those who do subscribe and thus enable us to produce a 

 work which even the Continental lepidopterists recognise has a 

 much wider scope than its title would indicate, and which it has 

 already been suggested in the German magazines should be 

 translated into that language for the use of German lepidopterists. 

 One cannot believe that a work, essentially British in its 

 conception and main outlines, can be of greater value to 

 German lepidopterists than to those for whom it has been primarily 

 written. We trust that all those who have the work will find 

 as great pleasure in studying it as the author has had in 

 writing it. 



The subscribers who have been added to our list since the 

 publication of the last volume are : — 



Bayne, A. F. 

 Broome, E. G. 

 Chamberlain, (Miss) M. 

 Colthrup, C. W. 

 Dyar, Harrison G.,Ph.D. 

 Federley, Marry 

 Gillmer, M. 



James, Russell E. 

 Lambillion, L. J. 

 Leicester Corporation, The 

 Oberthiir, Charles, F. E.S. 

 Prest, E.E.B., M.A. 

 Redmayne, Mrs. 

 Wesley & Son (6 copies) 



The knowledge that no one man can bring to a successful issue 

 so comprehensive a task as the completion of this work, leads us to 

 state that, if any well-qualified lepidopterist with sufficient leisure feels 

 inclined to prepare any one of the proposed future volumes, on the 

 same lines as those published, we should be pleased to hear from him. 

 It might be possible for us to collaborate and to take the responsibility 

 of publication of such a volume (or volumes) and we would suggest 

 that the Tortricids, the Noctuids, the Adelids, the Tineids (in sens, 

 strict.), Pyralids, Crambids, and Geometrids are among the groups a 

 thorough overhauling of which is highly desirable. 



