80 
INTRODUCTION. 
■without appearing to have been, acquainted with 
what had been done by Dalman, likewise had re- 
course to the structure of the wings in his arrange- 
ment, as published in the Encyclopedie Methodique, 
and Lepidoptera of France. In the latter work, 
the diurnal series is classified with reference to the 
appearance of the discoidal cell in the inferior 
wings ; and by adopting this excellent character, he 
has, in most instances, greatly improved on La- 
treille’s method. 
In 1776, an arrangement was proposed which 
attracted little attention at the time, but which has 
since risen to considerable distinction. It is that 
exhibited in the Systematic Catalogue of the Lepi- 
doptera found in the neighbourhood of Vienna, 
by MM. Denis and Sckiffermiiller. This original 
and highly valuable system is entirely founded on 
the appearance of the caterpillars. It is singular 
that characters almost exclusively drawn from that 
state, should confirm the classifications founded 
on characters afforded by the imago or complete 
insect. But to such a degree does this coinci- 
dence obtain, that almost all the families proposed 
by the Austrian naturalists have been adopted as 
genera by those who were guided by other prin- 
ciples. This method remained for a long time al- 
most unknown to the naturalists of this country, 
and even on the continent its excellence seems to 
have been but inadequately appreciated, except 
among the Germans. The only authors that have 
acted upon it are Ochsenheimer, and his continuator 
