PREFACE 



The chief aim of this book is the study of the Insect Fauna of the Indian 

 forests from the economic standpoint. It is probably the first of its kind 

 attempted for a British Dependency. 



In 1898 the Government of India sanctioned the publication of a 

 small compilation entitled Injurious Insects of Indian Forests. In this 

 book I had gathered together the information then known on the subject 

 of the life histories of insects of economic importance in the Indian 

 forests.* The data included were mainly taken from Indian Museum 

 Notes, issued from the Indian Museum, under the direction of Colonel A. 

 Alcock, CLE., F.R.S., to whose advice during my early days in India I 

 owe much. Since that year, chiefly through the interest and keenness 

 displayed by officers of the Forest Department, both Imperial and Pro- 

 vincial, in advancing the study of this branch of forestry science, and to 

 the generous aid extended towards the department by the Government of 

 India, considerable progress has been made in a knowledge of a subject the 

 importance of which in the preservation of the Forest Estate cannot be too 

 strongly emphasized. In the absence of a thorough understanding of the life 

 histories of important pests it is impossible to attempt to prescribe remedial 

 or protective measures. Equally undesirable, in the absence of such know- 

 ledge, is it to take up an attitude of non possumus when considering the 

 efficient application of measures of this kind over the large tracts with 

 which the Indian forester has to deal. It is fully admitted that the study 

 is only in the pioneer stage, and this book has no pretensions to be more 

 than that of a pioneer endeavouring to indicate in some small degree the 

 lines upon which the further study of the subject should proceed. So vast 

 is the field opened out that almost of necessity it is likely to prove advisable 

 to confine future publications to local' provincial brochures in which the 

 important pests of the trees of economic value in the forest areas concerned 

 will be treated of. In dealing with the great mass of material available to 



* In this work brief notes, many of them fragmentary, were given on some 130 insects. 

 The important families Scolytidae and Platypodidae were represented by 4 and o species 

 respectively. I am able to include here 74 and 20 species of these two families. 



