PKEFACE. V. 



F. Noad Clark, Hugh Main, and A. E. Tonge, made from the living 

 objects or from the natural objects in situ, as well as from the micro- 

 scopic preparations of Dr. T. A. Chapman, and the descriptions thereof, 

 as well as the more comprehensive and detailed descriptive matter in 

 the body of the work by Dr. Chapman, and our own researches from 

 various sources, they will feel that they have now the means of getting 

 at most of the facts connected with the life-histories of the species 

 described. 



Possibly the greatest satisfaction that we feel in connection with 

 this volume is that engendered by our having drawn Mr. G. T. 

 Bethune- Baker into the toils of our entomological socialistic community. 

 His unequalled wealth of knowledge of the extra-European Ruralid 

 species, and his excellent grip of the essential characters that have 

 to be considered in critical questions of specific and non-specific value 

 have enabled us to present with confidence our conclusions as to the 

 specific or varietal value of all those forms of our own species that 

 have so wide a geographical range. The detailed examination by 

 Dr. Chapman and Mr. Bethune-Baker of the genitalia of Celastrina 

 argiolus, and a large number of allied species, leaves no manner of 

 doubt that all the various American races of C. pseudaryiolus, as well 

 as many of the Indian forms treated as distinct species by de Niceville, 

 are mere geographical races of our common and widely-spread species, 

 and are in no wise to be considered as distinct species. 



One other point we would urge, viz., the necessity of every British 

 entomologist obtaining a grip of the general characters of, and the 

 particular literature relating to, the group he is studying. To the 

 isolated worker, as well as the busy one, much of the reference work 

 needed to get this grip is impossible, and hence we have no hesitation 

 in summarising that which we have used for our own results. By 

 this means, facts are at the disposal of all, and every student can at 

 least draw his own conclusions, when such are based on these facts. 



Now, as to the generous help received. First and foremost 

 the author's thanks are due to Dr. T. A. Chapman, for there 

 is hardly a page that does not bear witness to his great kind- 

 ness. To Mr. Stanley Edwards, who has laboured most ungrudg- 

 ingly at the authorities and unearthed a great mass of detail from 

 their works ; to Messrs. Gillmer, Kappel, Kirby, and Sich, for trans- 

 lations of important articles from the foreign magazines ; to Mr. 

 H. J. Turner for the " Synopsis of Contents " and " Special Index,'' 

 to the Rev. G. H. Raynor for looking through the proofs, to Mr. 

 F. N. Pierce for working out the characters of the " androconia," to 

 Professor Blachier, Messrs. Aigner-Abafi, Rowland-Brown, Federley, 

 Gillmer, Commander J. J. Walker, and Paymaster-in-Chief G. F. 

 Mathew, for their comprehensive distribution lists, and to Mr. Heron, 

 w T ho has kindly helped with the material in the British Museum 

 collection, the author's most grateful thanks are due ; in short, it may 

 best, perhaps, be put that the author's share of the work has been the 

 least, and yet he has not felt himself free with a moment's leisure 

 since the first pages began to assume the form that was required in 

 order to ma.ke the volume now presented. If the student only feels 

 that he has the best that we can offer, and the collector that he has 

 at least all he wants, if not something besides, we shall be amply 

 repaid for the work bestowed on the production of the volume. 



