jg INTRODUCTION. 



Argynnis, Vanessa, Limenitis, Apatura, Hipparchia, Lycarna, Thecla, Doritis, 

 Pontia, Colias, %c. are derived from the Syst. Glossar. above-mentioned. But 

 before this period the works of Schrank and Ochsenheimer had appeared, in which a 

 considerable advance had been made towards those determinations which are almost 

 exclusively ascribed to Fabricius : it will therefore be necessary, in the sequel* to 

 give a more detailed abstract of some of the divisions of Ochsenheimer. The genera 

 of Schrank are, on the whole, of a higher and more comprehensive description, and 

 many of them are equal in rank to the stirpes of Mr. Macleay ; but all his minor sub- 

 divisions are founded on the families of the Wiener Verzeichnis, which are uniformly 

 referred to by him. I propose in the sequel to give an abstract of his subdivisions, 

 and I shall have frequent occasion to quote his authority. Various other writers point 

 out the estimation in which the Wiener Verzeichnis was held, especially in Germany, 

 and the manner in which it was received on the continent of Europe : of these I shall 

 here cite Cramer, Borkhausen, and Illiger. 



Cramer's " Papillons Exotiques " was concluded soon after the publication of the 

 Vienna Catalogue. In the introduction to the fourth volume we find the following 

 passage : " II seroit a souhaiter que Ton pourroit suivre dans l'ordre du rang des 

 Papillons et des Phalenes exotiques et Europeens, le Systeme des Entomologues de 

 Vienne, un systeme qui, pour ce qui regarde celles a ailes farineuses de l'Europe, et 

 principalement dans la Famille des Sphinx, est de la dernieure exactitude." 



Borkhausen, who commenced in 1788, and continued in the succeeding years, a 

 detailed description of the Lepidoptera of Europe, ascribes, in enumerating the 

 writers on this order, the greatest merit to Denis and Schieffermuller. Among other 

 commendations is the following: " not satisfied with an acquaintance with the 

 insect in its perfect state, they examined it also in the early stages of its existence ; 

 they compared the various caterpillars with the butterflies which are produced 

 from them, traced with indefatigable industry the plan of nature in these animals, 

 and discovered the resemblance which was invariably preserved in the structure 

 of species related to each other in affinity, in the different stages of their 

 existence." He also points out their success in a natural disposition of subjects, in 

 cases where the larva had not yet been discovered ; and declares that experience 

 had confirmed many combinations, established merely from the analogy of the perfect 

 insect. 



Illiger, in his preface to a new edition of the " Vienna Catalogue," in which 

 copious descriptions and synonyms are added to the species, while many original 

 remarks of the first edition are omitted, declares that this work, at the time of 

 its appearance, had formed an epoch in entomology ; and that in 1801 it was still 

 considered as one of the most acute and instructive works ever published on Natural 



History. 



