The Lepidoptera present something of a puzzle in biological science. Although represented by the only insect to be fully domesticated – the silkworm, Bombyx mori – and providing experimental subjects for much ground-breaking work in physiology and genetics, their virtues as model systems for molecular studies are still comparatively little recognized. This seems particularly striking when one notes the attention lavished in recent years on one diminutive distant cousin of the butterflies and moths, namely, the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Yet the Lepidoptera continue to have much to offer, both in their own right as experimental subjects and in a wide range of comparative studies. Our deliberate intention in organizing the present volume was to help focus attention on this diverse, fascinating, and immensely useful group of organisms and, if possible, to increase their relative appreciation.

The germ for the idea of this book grew out of the first workshop on Molecular Genetics and Molecular Biology of the Lepidoptera, held at the Orthodox Academy in Kolymbari, Crete, in September 1988. This meeting – an outgrowth of several earlier silkworm meetings held in France and the United States – was organized by Fotis Kafatos and Marian Goldsmith in response to the needs of a growing community of lepidopteran researchers. For this group, there seemed to be no forum to share data, compare notes, and exchange ideas in the company of people familiar with the advantages and idiosyncrasies of their own experimental organisms. As impressed by the diversity of systems being studied at the molecular level in these insects and by the high quality of the work presented at Kolymbari as were the other participants,…