IV PREFACE. 



with modern ideas on the subject has been evolved, and that 

 the keys and illustrations will render this scheme intelligible 

 to students and enable them to follow the characters given. 

 In the preparation of the system now proposed I have been 

 much indebted to Herr P. C. T. Snellen's ' Vlinders van 

 Nederland/ the only recently attempted classification of the 

 families of Moths that I know of. How admirable a classi- 

 fication it is may be judged of by the fact that I have found 

 his system, based on the small fauna of the Netherlands, 

 applicable with but slight modifications to the large tropical 

 fauna of India. 



The material available for study has been almost complete 

 as far as it exists, and the descriptions have been drawn up 

 and the synonymy worked out, in the large majority of cases, 

 from the types of the species, so that it is hoped that com- 

 paratively few errors will have crept in. No pains have been 

 spared to compare as large a series of each species as was 

 possible, and as most of the species were originally described 

 from single specimens by their authors, who did not always 

 make sufficient allowance for the variation that is known to 

 exist amongst the Moths of Europe and other countries 

 where they have been largely bred, the synonymy has been 

 lengthy and difficult to unravel ; and though some may think 

 that more has been done in uniting species than will be 

 justified by a future study of the subject, yet as the individual 

 peculiarities of each form have been indicated this will but 

 help to show their affinities. 



In very few localities in British India have the Moths 

 been collected systematically enough over a large number of 

 years to give results approaching completeness. Sikhim and 

 Ceylon are certainly the best-worked tracts. The former 

 yielded the greater part of the fine collection made by the 

 late W. S. Atkinson, now in the possession of Dr. Staudinger 



