16 FRANCIS HEMMING 



substantial differences between the way in which new generic names were employed 

 on the plates and in the text respectively. 



When in the early nineteen-thirties, I began the preparation of the present work, 

 it was evident that no satisfactory presentation of the generic names of the butter- 

 flies would be practicable until the doubts as to the dates of publication of the 

 component portions of the works by Hiibner and Doubleday discussed above had 

 been completely eliminated or at least reduced to very small dimensions. I had 

 already at that time undertaken some investigations in regard to the foregoing 

 works, and I decided to press on with these in every possible way, even if this were 

 to involve — as it ultimately did involve — putting on one side for some time my 

 investigations of the generic names as such. 



In the case of works by Hiibner and his successor Geyer an immense stroke of luck 

 occurred when in 1935 the surviving manuscripts of those authors suddenly became 

 available for study after having been lost to sight for many years. It had long been 

 believed that there might be a chance that after the death of Geyer these documents 

 had been passed into the hands of Herrich-Schaeffer and that after his death they 

 had been aquired by the well-known entomologist C. F. Freyer, a fellow-townsman 

 of Hiibner's and author of the earliest obituary notice of Hiibner's life. All trace of 

 the subsequent history of these documents was lost until, following a suggestion of 

 C. D. Sherborn's, investigation put in hand in 1935 established that they had many 

 years earlier become the property of the great Berlin firm of booksellers R. Freid- 

 lander und Sohn. These documents had never been examined after Hiibner's death 

 and on their presentation to the Royal Entomological Society of London by the late 

 Mr. R. W. Lloyd by whom they had been purchased, it became evident at once that 

 they contained a great deal of the most valuable information throwing light on the 

 dates of publication of Hiibner's works. I at once started with the assistance of 

 Mr. Francis J. Griffin, at that time Registrar to the Royal Entomological Society, a 

 detailed examination of the very varied and very numerous documents included in 

 the collection. This search, which occupied the whole of the time at my disposal for 

 over a year, made it possible ultimately to determine the precise date of publication 

 of almost every plate and sheet of text of Hiibner's works or, if this did not prove to 

 be practicable, to establish publication dates within very narrow ranges. The 

 result of these investigations was published by the Royal Entomological Society in 

 my work entitled " Hiibner " (2 vols) which appeared in February 1937. 



Immediately after the conclusion of the Hiibner problem, work was resumed on 

 the corresponding problem on Doubleday 's " Genera ". The first steps in this 

 matter had been taken in 193 1 and thereafter additional information of various 

 kinds had accumulated during the time when the Hiibner problem was under 

 investigation. Thereafter further information was obtained from various sources, 

 this information interlocking with, and extending that previously collected. Finally 

 it was possible to present a statement of conclusions, in which a precise date of 

 publication was assigned to each sheet of text in, and to each plate comprised in, 

 Doubleday's " Genera " (Hemming, 1941, J.Soc. Bibl. Soc. not. Hist. (1) : 335-411). 



The disappearance of doubt as to the dates to be assigned to new names published 



