viii. 
PREFACE. 
every recent author. I do not, however, intend to enter into an 
argument here upon the most correct order in which to place them ; 
it will be sufficient for me to say that in following the system that 
has been familiar to me from childhood I have carefully considered 
the reasons advanced by various authors in support of the newer 
arrangement, and my mind has failed to be convinced of a sufficient 
cause to justify the change. 
With the genera I have interfered very little ; I have in many 
instances preferred to retain names which, although not claiming 
precedence by priority of date, have become so familiar by long use 
as to make it inexpedient in my opinion to discard them. 
Especially with regard to the Hespebid.te is the arrangement 
of the genera provisional. I have been unable to refer to the recent 
work of Mabille,* Speyer,f and PlotzJ in the diagnosing of this 
family. 
I declare myself an uncompromising opponent of the species 
makers, and there are many names still in my list that I felt at the 
time strongly tempted to sink as synonyms, and some more that I 
feel convinced will have to be struck out in the future and treated 
as varietal forms only. A number of species — more especially 
amongst the Hespeeid^ — to descriptions of which I have been unable 
to refer, will doubtless prove to be ones that I have since described, 
so that the total number of species will probably bear considerable 
reduction. 
I cannot avoid here remarking that I think the practice of 
hastily describing as a new species an insect that the author has 
seen but a single example of, possessing no local knowledge of the 
fauna from whence it is derived, is much to be deprecated, as 
calculated to simply cumber the literature and render the 
identification of the species troublesome and complicated, conse- 
quently retarding rather than advancing the interests of science. 
But still worse is it when persons entirely ignorant ol the literature 
of the subject, from a mere desire to have their names appear in 
type, recklessly publish descriptions of alleged new species, regardless 
of the work of a century, without the possibility of knowing whether 
the specimen is already described or not ; of such it is to be deplored 
Ave are unhappily not free. 
In giving the localities of the various species in my catalogue, 
it will be observed that I refer in almost every instance to the 
* Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1877. t Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1878. 
% Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1879. 
/ 
