IV PREFACE. 



Bengal civil service, who has placed at my disposal a very extensive 

 series of drawings of the transformations of Lepidoptera, from con- 

 tinental India ; the first portion, containing the Diurna, has already 

 reached our Museum, and Plate XII. of illustrations consists almost 

 entirely of Mr. Grrote's contributions. 



I have also to acknowledge thankfully the contribution of original 

 drawings of transformations of Eastern Lepidoptera : first, by Edgar 

 Leopold Layard, Esq., of drawings from Ceylon : secondly, by Lady 

 Isabella Rose GUbert, of drawings from continental India : thirdly, 

 by Captain Mortimer Slater, of drawings from northern India : 

 fourtlily, the Entomological Society has also afforded access to the 

 drawings made by Mrs. Hamilton. 



The general plan according to which this work will be conducted 

 is detailed in the Introductory Remarks. The indications afforded 

 by the metamorphoses form the basis, and the subjects will be 

 arranged, as far as possible, according to their affinities or most 

 natural relations. This has been attempted in the first Tribe, the 

 metamorphoses of which are illustrated on the first seven and the 

 twelfth Plate, to which I refer the reader : but in a local collection 

 of limited extent such an attempt must necessarily be imperfect. 



The Sphinges, forming the second Tribe, are limited exclusively 

 to those Insects in which the chrysalis is naked, and deposited on 

 the surface or under the earth, the character of which is illustrated 

 by Plates VIIL, IX., X., and XI. These form, in the twelfth 

 edition of the " Systema Naturas," the first, second, and part of 

 the third section of the genus Sphinx, as defined by Linna?us. 

 The remainder of tliis genus, namely, part of the third and fourth 

 sections, consisting chiefly of the genera jMgeria and Zygoma, 

 belong with more propriety to the Bombyces, to which they are 

 allied both in their transformations and in the perfect insect, the 

 chrysalis being enveloped in a silky fabric or cocoon, in the manner 

 of the Bomhyces. 



Thus restricted, the Sphinges are divided into five Stirpes, 



