PREFACE. 
In the present Volume will be found much original matter on the early stages 
of the species treated of, and in consequence of this the labor of preparing and 
coloring the Plates has been very much greater than it was in the first Volume. 
Hence the delay in the issue of the several Parts. I have been seconded to the 
utmost by Mrs. Mary Peart, who has not only drawn the early stages on the 
stone, but previously on paper, making in each case colored figures ; and in 
order to do this has had to aid in rearing the larvae, and to take a vast amount 
of trouble upon herself. Of the one hundred and one Plates in the two Volumes, 
ninety-eight have been done by Mrs. Peart, with a fidelity to nature that cannot 
be surpassed ; and of the total number one hundred have been colored by Mrs. 
Lydia Bowen and her sister, Mrs. Leslie, to whom I am under great obligations 
for the interest they have constantly taken in all that concerned their depart¬ 
ment. Their skill and patient care every Plate bears witness to. 
I have received valuable aid in obtaining eggs or larvae from many correspon¬ 
dents, whose names will be found mentioned. 
In the Advertisement to the first Volume, 1868, regret was expressed that 
in so few instances anything could be said of the larvae: “ Even among our old 
and common species, the larvae are but little more known than in the days of 
Abbot, seventy years ago.” All that is changed, and to-day it can be said that 
the preparatory stages of North American butterflies as a whole are better known 
than are those of Europe; and so many zealous workers are now busy in the 
field that another period of sixteen years may leave comparatively little to be 
done in these investigations. 
I hope, after an interval of a few months, to proceed with a third "V olume, for 
which I have in hand abundant materials. 
WILLIAM H. EDWARDS. 
Coalburgh, W. Va., 1 November , 1884. 
