Preliminary Synonymical and Distributional Checklist of African Lepidoptera. Cent. Ent. Stud., Memoirs 5: 1-975, 5 figs. This paper deals with the bibliography and the preliminary checklist of the Lepidoptera of Africa based upon the fauna of 53 states. Totally 19200 species (or 23921 valid species group names) are arranged alphabetically under 86 families, together with the synonymous scientific names in chronological order. Distributional information of each taxon are given as geographical codes. Some taxa are also provided with their original references. Totally 1632 publications are listed with notes of their contents and geographical information.