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Introduction

There are currently an estimated 112,000 to 165,000 described species of butterflies and moths (Scoble, 1999) in 24,009 available or objective replacement genus-group names within 131 families. This online catalogue comprises 31,147 entries and includes all published genus-group names (including junior homonyms, junior synonyms, unnecessary replacement names, misspellings, incorrect citations and suppressed, unavailable, invalid and rejected names) from Linnaeus, 1758, up to the present.

The families (and subfamilies where relevant), authors, publication dates, references, type-species, type-species designations, type specimen data, synonymy and comments on genus-group names are included.

The tribes and subtribes where relevant and known are given for the butterflies and hawkmoths following Lamas et al. (in press) and the placement of most Nymphalidae genus-group names has been updated in collaboration with Niklaus Wahlberg and Gerardo Lamas as part of the Global Butterfly Information System (GloBIS).

The references have been standardised as far as possible throughout and a bibliography of the 6,155 references by 1,281 different authors or author combinations is included.

More than 400 full-colour images, representing most of the families and subfamilies, have also been included. Images are taken from The Natural History Museum's extensive collections.

Last updated 28-Jul-2004 Dr B R Pitkin