PREFACE. 



The present part of the 'Illustrations' contains an account of a collection of j\Iacro-Lc|)i- 

 doptera Heterocera made in the district of Kangra by the Rev. J. li. Hocking in the years 

 1877-79, chiefly at Dharmsala. 



Mr. Hocking has kindly supplied me with the following particulars as regards the district 

 and localities where he collected the insects : — " The Kangra district extends from the 

 Ravee to the Sutlej, and comprises 8000 square miles of country. In addition to Kangra 

 proper, extending from Hooshiarpur to Bygnath on the Mundi boundary, the district includes 

 Killu, a valley at the foot of the Rotang Pass, where the Blue Beas, one of the five rivers of 

 the Punjab, takes its rise and spends its infancy and youth, and has in its immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, and under the District Officers, the important and picturesque States of Mundi, 

 Suchet, Chumba, Goleir, Lumbagiraon, &c. Dharmsala is the Headquarter Station of the 

 District Officers, and is 6200 feet above the level of the sea ; Kangra Fort standing some 

 2300 feet in the valley, which slopes gradually from Puthankote, on the plains of the 

 Punjab, to Palampore, where the elevation is 4000 feet. The district extends to the Ijoun- 

 daries of British Thibet at the head of the Kiilu valley, and its highest mountains reacli 

 to 18,000 feet, those in Lahore (juit over the boundary) rising to 21,000 feet." 



The number of species amounts to upwards of 780, and many of them were reared from 

 larvae, of which a very instructive series was prepared by Mr. Hocking by inflation and is in 

 an admirable state of preservation. 



As the collection is evidently sufficiently complete to give a good idea of the composition 

 of the Lepidopterous Fauna of this district, it seemed useful not to limit this part of the 



