20 



INTRODUCTION. 



it will not be difficult for any entomologist, of very moderate experience, to refer most 

 of the Lepidoptera with which he may be acquainted to one of the following types 

 of form or divisions, viz. Papilionidce, Sphingidcc, Bombycidce, Noctuadce, and Phalce- 

 nidce. To give a precise definition of these groups individually is not my design at 

 present ; perhaps it would not be a task very easily effected, according to their 

 variations of metamorphosis. I propose that they be considered in this place 

 abstractedly, without any regard to a rigid distinction, but as familiar types of form 

 which may easily be called to mind. The designation of tribe will be applied to them 

 individually, agreeably to the system of subdivision above enumerated. But it may, 

 perhaps, be expected that I should give a comparative analysis of the divisions of 

 this order, generally employed in systematic works ; this will, however, be done with 

 more propriety, as occasionally suggested, in the progress of the work : of the 

 minor groups several will naturally find a place in the tribes above enumerated; the 

 situations of others, according to their metamorphosis, require various comparisons 

 and details, which I am not prepared at present to undertake. 



I commence with some general remarks on the first tribe, the Papilionidas, agree- 

 ably to the order of subdivision which I propose to follow ; I shall then give a rapid 

 preliminary sketch of the other tribes ; after which I shall proceed to a more 

 detailed analysis of the Papilionidag, in which I shall consider the modifications 

 of the metamorphosis in connexion with the structure of the perfect insect. Now 

 I have to show, in the first place, that, in tracing the metamorphosis of the true 

 Papilionidse, which constitute the first tribe, and which comprizes the Lepidoptera 

 Diurna of Latreille, the genus Papilio of Linnaeus, the Falter or Tagschmetterlinge 

 of Ochsenheimer and the authors of the Vienna Catalogue, I have observed 

 several types of form, to which all the larvas and chrysalides which I have collected 

 myself, or which I have found described and delineated in the works of others, can 

 without exception be referred, viz. 



First : a larva of a linear oblong form, attenuated at both ends, depressed or 

 cylindrico-convex, of a sluggish appearance, with short and scarcely perceptible feet ; 

 distinctly marked above with transverse striae. A pupa nearly smooth, or with 

 comparatively few protuberances, very obtuse at the anterior extremity, attached by 

 the abdomen, braced, vertically suspended with the head upwards or tending for- 

 wards in a horizontal direction. 



Examples of this larva are given in the third plate, in fig. 11, 12, and 13, and on 

 the fourth plate both larva and pupa are figured in No. 1, 1. a. 2, 2. a. 3 3. a. 4 

 4. a. and 5, 5. a. The subjects represented will be referred to in the course of the 

 work. This is apparently the most simple form in the tribe of Papilionidse : it is 

 distinguished in the diagram with the name of vermiform. 



Secondly .• 



