iy PBEFACE. 



the hind wing becoming widely separated from the cell except 

 near the base ; (2) the Larentiina, by the bar migrating to 

 near the end of the cell, or by vein 8 anastomosing with the 

 cell to near its end ; (3) the Boarmiina, by vein 5 of the hind 

 wing becoming aborted, vein 8 being free or retaining the 

 bar in the lowest forms, such as Abraxas and its allies. 



In the original scheme of the work it was estimated that 

 it would be possible to include most of the subfamilies of 

 the Pyralidce within the limits of the third volume, but the 

 great activity that has prevailed among students of Indian 

 Moths and the large number of species that have been 

 described during the four years that the volumes have been 

 in preparation have made this impossible. The publication, 

 however, of M. Ragonot's first volume on the Phycitinte, a 

 group of Moths that, owing to the ravages committed by 

 many of the species among forest-trees, corn, cotton, tobacco, 

 &c., is of more economic importance than any other, except 

 perhaps the silk-producing Bombycidce and Satvrniida, and 

 the approaching completion of his second volume, which 

 will include the GalleriinG, have made it possible to study 

 the subject as a whole. Thus the postponement of the 

 Pyralida is hardly to be regretted if at some future time 

 a fourth volume is sanctioned containing the whole of 

 that family and also an Appendix bringing the rest of the 

 work up to date. This would complete the subject down 

 to the families for which Lord Walsingham has the whole 

 of the material in course of preparation for publication. 



I have to thank Dr. O. Staudinger for his courtesy in 

 sending me the types of all the species described by Mr. Moore 

 from the Atkinson Collection, of which no specimens exist in 

 England, and for having thus enabled me to determine the 

 affinities of many species I had otherwise no means of classi- 

 fying. The whole of the gentlemen mentioned in the preface 

 to my first volume have also continued their assistance in 

 the freest and most generous manner. In addition Mr. G. 

 C. Dudgeon has first placed at my disposal, and then presented 

 to the British Museum, the results of his many years' col- 

 lecting in Sikhim and Bhutan; and, lastly, M. L. de Niceville, 

 the author of the invaluable volumes on the Butterflies of 

 India, has sent me many new and rare species fromTenasserim. 



G. F. HAMPSON. 



December 1st, 1894. 



