vi PREFACE 



Guinea. Although many of the day-flying insects 

 and the birds which are the objects most easily 

 obtained by missionaries and officials with little 

 experience in collecting, or by naturalists pressed 

 for time were already made known from the islands 

 east of New Guinea and from the Solomons, the 

 field was practically virgin to a great extent, particu- 

 larly as regards moths. Even in the coast districts 

 of the mainland of New Guinea no extensive moth- 

 collecting had been done by any collector of experi- 

 ence. Considering the great zeal which A. S. Meek 

 has shown throughout his travels, it cannot, therefore, 

 be wondered at that the new species of moths dis- 

 covered by him many of which still await description 

 must be counted by the thousand. 



Besides the Snow Mountains in Dutch New Guinea 

 and a number of localities in British New Guinea 

 at the north and south sides of the Owen Stanley 

 Range, A. S. Meek has visited all the more important 

 islands east and south-east of New Guinea as well as 

 all the larger and many of the smaller islands of the 

 Solomon group with the exception of Maleyta and 

 Rennell, which he hopes to explore on another 

 occasion. 



The zoogeographical results of his expeditions to 

 these little-known places are naturally of great 

 interest. New Guinea, the largest island on the 

 globe, lying under the Equator, and its mountain 

 ranges rising to such heights that they are covered 



