il PREFACE 
many millions of rupees annually, whilst every houseliold in India 
suffers loss on account of the Grain Moth (Sitotroga cerealella), 
and what housewife, be she never so careful, but has found reason 
to bewail the damage caused by Clothes Moths (Tinea pellionella, 
Trichophaga abruptella, etc.) ? 
The present and subsequent papers endeavour to indicate 
our present state of knowledge (I might almost better say our 
want of knowledge) of the life-histories of these small moths, so 
far as they are at present known in India, and some indications 
are given of the early stages of three hundred and ninety-six species, 
the information given being based upon records already published 
in various sources and on unpublished records derived from the 
files of the Entomological Section of the Pusa Research Institute. 
The scattered manner in which these records have been published 
hitherto is indicated by the references given under each species 
and it is hopeless to expect the ordinary worker in India, without 
a veritable library specially gathered to this end, to be able to 
consult all these references at first-hand. I have therefore consider- 
ed it better to bring together all the published information, even 
at the risk of a certain amount of repetition. 
It is hoped that these papers will be of use, not only to the 
Entomological Staffs of the Agricultural Department who are 
interested primarily in crop-pests, but also to those collectors in 
India who ordinarily occupy themselves only with the butterflies 
and larger moths, mainly because of the scanty available informa- 
tion regarding the smaller forms. 
It should be emphasized that these papers deal only with 
life-histories and not with control measures, in the case of pests 
or with classification. Both of these aspects may perhaps be treated 
of hereafter. 
PuSsA: T. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHER, 
25th June, 1919, Imperial Entomologist. 
