PREFACE. 



At the request and by the Hberal enterprise of the Trustees of the Indian Museum — 

 much influenced by my late friend Mr. E. T. Atkinson — I have in the following pages 

 attempted the monographic revision and description of the Oriental species of the 

 Homoptercus Family Cicadida;. 



The limits of the fauna thus studied have already been defined at page 2, and over 

 this large area our knowledge of such a little-collected family as the Cicadidae must necessarily 

 be fragmentary and of a very unequal character. Nevertheless I have been able to study a 

 very great deal of the material which already exists. The fine collection of these insects 

 belonging to the Indian Museum at Calcutta has passed through my hands, and I have 

 examined all the specimens in the collection of the late Mr. E. T. Atkinson. I have also 

 had submitted to me for identification the whole of the Oriental species in the Brussels 

 Museum ; * the Celebesian specimens collected by Dr. Meyer, and now in the Dresden 

 Museum ; the very fine material in the Genoa Museum, t including the collection made by 

 Fea in Tenasserim and Upper Burma, by Beccari in several islands of the Malayan Archipelago, 

 and by D'Albcrtis in New Guinea ; the rich Cicadan possessions in the Leyden Museum, I 

 including the captures made in Java and Sumatra by Hagen, Van Lansberg, and the Sumatran 

 Expedition, have been placed at my disposal to aid this work; §and I have also had a loan of 

 the private collections of the late Dr. Signoret, Mr. P. Moore, and ^Iv. F. Pascoe. I have 

 naturally had ready access to the British Museum, without which nothing could have been 

 attempted in the unravelling of the types made by the late F. Walker, and our national 

 collection is not only rich in Indian species, but contains nearly all the Cicadan results of 

 Mr. Wallace's memorable visit to the Malayan Archipelago. My own collection includes the 

 captures made by Dr. Leith in Bombay, A. W. Chennell in Assam, G. T. Hampson iu the 

 Neelgiri Kills, myself in the Malay Peninsula, H. 0. Forbes in Java and Sumatra, Carl Bock 

 in Sumatra and Borneo, Baron Von Hiigel in Java, W. Doherty in Assam, Burma, Perak, 

 Borneo, and the eastern islands of the Archipelago, J. Whitehead on the Kina Balu Mt., 

 Capt. Bingham in Burma, Geo. Lewis and II. J. S. Pryer in Japan. W. B. Pryer in North 



"■' For which I was imlchtecl to M. rrcuilhuuime de Borre. 



i Tluougli the kindness of the JIarquis Doria and Dr. Gestro. 



J I cannot help recording, and with scientific appreciation and gratitude, the facilities I have been afforded by 

 Continental JIuseums, to improve this and other works I have been engaged on, by the loan of specimens, always cheerfully 

 and readily granted. I cannot give Continental workers the assurance of similar assistance from our National Institution, for 

 by tlio rules of tho liritish Museum, a specimen once deposited there never leaves the portals of its zealously -guarded doors. 



§ 15y the good offices of Dr. C. Hitsema. 



