INTRODUCTION. 



17 



History. He further declares, that the high estimation it had originally acquired 

 was not diminished, mentions the regard in which it was held by Fabricius, and 

 the use he had made of it, and states, that notwithstanding the labours of Knoch, 

 Hiibner, Brahm, Borkhausen, and others, its contents might be considered at the 

 present period a faithful epitome of our knowledge in this department of ento- 

 mology. 



But no writer has so completely entered into the spirit, and applied the views of 

 the Vienna Catalogue, as Ochsenheimer, whose description of European Lepidoptera 

 is perhaps the most comprehensive that has yet been offered to the public. To show 

 this it would be necessary to analyse the whole, but such is not my present object ; 

 I shall only remark with regret, that in the latter portions of his system, he has in 

 many cases departed from the families of the Wiener Verzeichnis, and has been led 

 into unsuccessful combinations, and the establishment of various genera which 

 cannot be approved; in the whole tribe of the Papilionidse he has however most 

 faithfully followed his guide; and the remarks contained in the preface to the first 

 volume, in which he declares his opinion of this work in general, are so pertinent, 

 that I shall extract them at large. " A complete and universal system of entomo- 

 logy, according to a common simple principle, is probably reserved for succeeding 

 generations ; in the mean time, it is the duty of the naturalist to seize whatever he 

 may be able to contribute towards the history of separate parts, and by this means 

 to facilitate future endeavours to complete the science. The authors of the Cata- 

 logue of Lepidoptera found in the neighbourhood of Vienna were not inattentive 

 to this while they were framing a system, which indeed comprises only a large portion 

 of the indigenous German Lepidoptera, but which, by the precision of the characters 

 employed, by the number of subdivisions, and by the fortunate disposition of affini- 

 ties, has obtained the reputation of the most acute and instructive work in this 

 department of entomology, and the justest claims on the gratitude of the present 

 and of succeeding generations. Considering the manifest insufficiency of single 

 characters to distinguish the perfect insects from the species most nearly related to 

 them, they recurred to the first stages of their existence, and by this means established 

 a mark of distinction, which, although common to all, is yet diversified in all, and 

 which affords the advantage of distinguishing with facility genera and species." 



In giving, on this occasion, an abstract of several of the families of Ochsenheimer's 

 system, I wish to direct attention to the period when the first part was published ; 

 and although it was in the same year in which the sixth volume of Illiger's Magazin 

 der Insectenkunde appeared, it probably took place before the general promulgation 

 of the posthumous Systema Glossatarum of Fabricius, above-mentioned. 



D Ochsenheimer's 



