ENTOMOLOGY. 51 



Vincent Bourne, in his lines on butterfly collecting, wliicli are so good as to deserve 

 to be better known than they are : 



" Ut genera et species dignoscat papilionum, 



Sitque quibus maculis quisquo, quibusque notis ; 

 Quotquot agris volitant, studiose bine colligit illiuc, 



Musa^i ut servet Pulvius inter opes. 

 Tbesaurum egregiiun ! si quis foret usus habendi ; 



At cuiuam \\kq servit cura laborquo bono ! 

 Papilio, centum quamvis scrvatur in annos. 

 Nil nisi reliquiaj papilionis erit." 



Since Dr. Mason wrote, a vast stride has been made in the study of the insects 

 of Btirma, though I think it may safely be asserted of insects as a class, that 

 (excepting the more showy Lcpidoptera) far more remain to be discovered than 

 have hitherto been enumerated from that area. Of the Lopidoptera a good many 

 have been collected, but even of tliese not 10 per cent, have been studied in their 

 metamorphoses, and the life of the individual traced from orum to imago. 



The present list of Lepidoptera is mainly based on the following data : — ■ 

 Catalogues of the Eiitish Museum ; Catalogue of Lepidopterous Insects in the 

 Museum of the East India Company, by Thomas Horsfield and Fredeiic Moore ; 

 Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects of Bengal, by Frederic Moore, P. Z. S. L. 

 I860, p. 755, and P. Z. S. L. 18G7, pp. 44 and 612;" The Lepidopterous Fauna of 

 the Andamans and Xicobar Islands, by F. Moore, P. Z. S. L. 1877, p. 580; A List 

 of the Lepidopterous Insects from Upper Tenasserim, by Frederic Moore, P. Z. S. L. 

 1878, p. 821 ; List of the diurnal Lepidoptera from Port Blair, etc., by G. J. Wood- 

 Mason and L de Niceville, Jounial As. Soc. Bengal, 1880, Part II. p. 223; other 

 papers by Messrs. Moore, Westwood, and Butler in P. Z. S. L. ; and last, but not 

 least in value, a List of Sikkim Lepidoptera, by Lionel de Kicevelle, in the Journal 

 of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, 1881, Part II. No. 1, p. 49, wherein some attention 

 is paid to the altitudinal range of a species instead of affixing the never-to-be-too- 

 much-reprobated habitat ' Barjiliiiff,' with its altitudinal range of 8000 feet, and 

 consequently varied floral and insect zones. 



As the compiler has no acquaintance with the profuse literature of the subject, 

 he claims the indulgence of his readers for the numerous eiTors of nomenclature and 

 arrangement which must have inevitably crept in. The reason, too, why the Lepi- 

 dopterous insects of Bengal have been incorporated in the Burmese fauna is as follows. 

 Of the species actually captured in Burma we have but a meagre list ; but we may 

 safely conclude that insects, which range from Northern Bengal to Ceylon or Java, 

 will certainly be found in Burma likewise. This will enable us to include a large 

 number not actually recorded as captured as yet within the Province. Another 

 considerable number may be included, which, though they may not range to Java or 

 Ceylon, may yet be confidently expected to range from Bengal into Arakan, and 

 thus fall legitimately within the scope of the Burma fauna. A small residue of the 

 insects of Bengal may perhaps not range into our Province ; as their not doing so 

 rests of course on the negative evidence of their not heuig blown to do so, I think 

 I act more safely in adopting the entire list, with the above proviso, than by limiting 

 the selection of Burmese insects to those few only, of which actually Burma- 

 captured specimens are known to exist. 



The list of the Lepidoptera of Bengal was mainly drawn up from collections 

 made by A. E. Russell, Esq., B.C.S., W. S. Atkinson, Esq., Director of Public 

 Instruction, A. Grote, Esq., B.C.S., and Capt. J. L. Sherwill, and the geographical 

 range embraced by these collections may be collectively described as reaching from 

 Nipal to Assam and the Naga hills. The list of Lepicloptera from the Andamans is 

 mainly based on a collection made Ijy F. A. de Eoepstorff, Esq., near Port Blair, and 

 of the Nicobar insects from a collection made by R. Meldola, Esq. 



Lepidoptera are characterized by four extended wings, scaly on both sides, 

 and supported by a framework of branching ribs. The mouth is suctorial, the 

 proboscis being curled up like a watch-spring whilst at rest, but capable of being 



