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PREFACE. 
The book entitled Rliopalocera Africce Aiistralis; a Cata- 
logue of South ' African Butterflies,'^ which I published in 
1862-66, has for long been out of print as well as out of date. 
Incomplete as it necessarily was, I am glad to know that it has 
proved very serviceable, especially in South Africa ; and this has 
encouraged me to prepare the present work on the same subject, 
embodying as far as I am able the results of the wider know- 
ledge gained during the twenty-one years which have passed 
since the old book made its appearance. As the new work is 
much more than a second edition of the former one, I have 
given it a different title, concisely descriptive of its character 
and scope. 
Unable to finish the work as soon as I had anticipated, I 
think it well to publish the completed portion without more 
delay. The two parts now together issued contain the Fami- 
lies NymplialidcB, Erycinidce, and Lyccenidce, comprising 238 
species, — a little over three-fifths of the whole number known. 
The concluding part, dealing with the Families Papilionidce 
and HesjperidcB, will describe about 142 species, bringing the 
total of known South- African forms up to about 380, — a strik- 
ing increase over the record in 1866, when (after removing the 
erroneous admissions from the list) only 197 natives of South 
Africa were registered. 
Keeping in view the requirements of students and collectors 
in the Cape Colony, Natal, and elsewhere in South Africa, who 
are for the most part debarred from opportunities of consulting 
