PEE FACE. 



The present volume concludes the work commenced 

 by the late Mr. H. T. Stainton in 1885. Fifteen years 

 no doubt appear a long time to have been required 

 for the production of the nine volumes, and possibly 

 had it been foreseen that the publication of the late 

 Mr. Buckler's exquisite figures would have needed 

 constant supervision until quite the end of the last 

 year of the century, it might never have been com- 

 menced. But now that it is done, probably no one 

 will say it is not worth the labour which has been 

 bestowed upon it ; for we believe it will be conceded 

 that no work has previously been published at all 

 comparable with it as a guide to the study of the 

 larvae of the British Macro-Lepidoptera. 



The delays in the appearance of the various volumes 

 have been caused chiefly — we might almost say en- 

 tirely — by the dilatoriness of the artists employed on 

 the reproduction of the figures ; and to myself as 

 Editor these delays have often been most exasperat- 

 ing, and probably to my colleagues of the Ray Society 

 almost equally so, as it was impossible to estimate 



