IV PREFACE. 



future time. Tlie knowledge oC the Indian members of tlicse 

 groups is more imperfcet than is that of the A.culeata. At 

 present Col. Bingham's knowledge of Indian animal life, 

 aceumulated during a long period of service in India and 

 Burma, ean be employed upon a group of inseets that is 

 better known, and of which a complete general account has 

 for many years been urgently required. The Editor has 

 much satisfaction in being able to announce that H.M.'s 

 Secretary of State for India has approved of the inclusion 

 of the Indian Butterflies in the present scries, and that 

 Col. Bingham has undertaken the description of tliem. 



Other volumes of the fauna which are nearly ready for 

 the press, and which may be expected before long, are 

 Mr. Gahan's on Longicorn Coleoptera, and a second 

 volume of Rhynchota by Mr. Distant. Land and Fresh- 

 water Mollusea and the Butterflies will, it is hoped, appear 

 in due course. 



For the first time in many years, less than a twelvemonth 

 has elapsed between the publication of the last part of the 

 Fauna, Vol. I. of the Rhynchota, and its successor, the work 

 now issued. 



W. T. BLANFORD. 



March Ist, 1903. 



