PREFACE. 



The present work has been written with a twofold object. 

 Firstly, to give a scientific and formal description of this little- 

 studied but important group of insects ; and, secondly, to enable 

 planters and agriculturists in general to recognise these destructive 

 pests, to understand their habits, and to learn how best to deal 

 with them. 



In the first place I have fully described all such species as 

 have already been recorded from Ceylon, and have added de- 

 scriptions of a very large number of new and hitherto unrecognised 

 species collected in the island during the last five years. To 

 show the proportion of these additions, I may mention that in 

 1 89 1, when Mr, W. F. Kirby published his paper* on the 

 Hemiptera of Ceylon, only seven species had been recorded. 

 In November, 1894, at the request of several entomologists in- 

 terested in the subject, I drew up a preliminary catalogue! of 

 the species that I had then found in Ceylon. In this list, which 

 was delayed in publication, and appeared only this year (1896), 

 I enumerated seventy-two distinct species. This large number 

 will be almost doubled in the present work, and, when other 

 parts of the island have been properly explored, it is probable 

 that considerably over two hundred species will be recognised. 



To secure uniformity of terms, every species, whether new or 



* ' Catalogue of the described Hemiptera, Heteroptera, and Homoptera of 

 Ceylon.' W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E.S. Journal of the Linnean Society {Zoology)^ 

 Vol. XXIV. pp. 72—176. 1891. 



t ' Catalogue of Coccidae, collected in Ceylon by Mr. E. E. Green.' Indian 

 Museum Notes, Vol. IV, No. i, 1896. 



b 



