In the present and previous series of "The Moths of the British Isles,"
over 750 species have been portrayed on the plates and described in the
text--a number that includes all those insects formerly grouped under the
now obsolete term "Macro-Lepidoptera." The task of dealing with so many
species in two volumes has necessarily imposed brevity in their treatment;
but it is hoped that nothing has been omitted that could be legitimately
regarded as falling within the scope of volumes especially designed for the
votaries of Nature Study.
To have comprised in this scheme the large contingent of our moths known as
"Micro-Lepidoptera" would have reduced further the space available for
those species which experience shows appeal to the majority of nature
students in a way that the minuter forms may not do. Even then, only a few
general remarks on each group would have been possible, with, perhaps, a
portrait or two of representative species. Such a course seemed hardly
likely to prove of practical utility. The "Small Fry," as they have been
called, exceedingly interesting though they may be to a limited number of
students, have therefore been left for separate treatment at some more
convenient season.
Both classification and nomenclature are always under revision, and we are
probably a long way from hearing the last word concerning either. These
are, however, matters that {vi} cannot be ignored even in a popular work;
consequently I have ventured to adopt sundry changes in arrangement and in
names which, although not departing from the old style in any very large
way, still approach pretty closely to the new.
I have again to tender my sincere thanks to Mr. Robert Adkin, F.E.S., for
kindly lending specimens of rare species and varieties for figuring; and
also to Mr. B. Adkin, Mr. G. T. Porritt, F.E.S., and Mr. A. J. Scollick,
F.E.S. I desire also to gratefully acknowledge the loan of further
beautiful coloured drawings by Mr. Alfred Sich, F.E.S. These figures have
been most accurately reproduced in black and white by Mr. Horace Knight, to
whom I am greatly indebted for his able assistance in connection with the
numerous drawings of ova, larvae, and pupae. In some cases the preserved
skin of a caterpillar had to serve as a model, and where this occurs the
fact is mentioned. A few figures of larvae have been copied from Dr. G.
Hofmann's _Die Raupen der Schmetterlinge Europas_, 2nd edit., by Professor
Dr. Arnold Spuler. All such reproductions are duly noted in the text.
Mr. Knight is also responsible for the coloured drawings for Plates 1, 13,
36, 61, 96, 98, 100, 104, 134, and 148; the figures on which, except that
of _Zygaena filipendulae ab. chrysanthemi_, are from specimens.
"A Forester," Mr. H. Main, F.E.S., and Mr. W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S., were
good enough to furnish prints of some of their excellent photographs
depicting life-history details of moths and caterpillars in repose, as met
with in nature.