2?8 JO URttAL, BOMB A f NA TtJRAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



The Bombay Presidency was well worked for a number of years by 

 Colonel Svvinboe, but a great deal still remains to be done, especially 

 amongst the smaller species, whilst Central India has hardly been 

 touched, though it cannot be expected to be very rich. 



Mysore and Madras have had collections made in them by Captain 

 Watson, and exhibit the typical widespread fauna of the plains of 

 India, leaving, however, plenty of work to be done amongst the 

 smaller species. 



The hill ranges of Southern India and the Western Ghats are by far 

 the richest collecting ground in peninsular Indin, and may be said to 

 be practically untouched, as far as systematic collecting is concerned, 

 except for the collections made on the Nilgiris by Mr. Alfred Lindsay 

 and myself, and it will be realized how much still remains to be done 

 by any collector who will really work at the subject when it is said that I 

 only collected moths there for a year and-a-half, and during that time 

 I took over a thousand species, of which some three hundred proved to 

 be undescribed. 



Ceylon is the district in which more has been done in the way of 

 steady collecting — spread over a large number of years — and in 

 breeding than in any other ; the collections made by Thwaites, Mack- 

 wood, Green, Butt, Pole, and others have given us considerable know- 

 ledge of its moth fauna, yet a constant stream of new species shews 

 there is still much to be done, even though decrease is beginning to be 

 shown both in numbers and size. 



In Upper Assam valuable collections were made at Margharita and in 

 the Naga Hills by W. Doherty during one of his rapid and brilliant 

 expeditions ; but it is to the Khasis we must turn if we wish to see 

 what can really be done by systematic collecting in a wonderfully rich 

 district, as will be observed by any one noting the overpowering pro- 

 portion of new species from that locality in the following pages. This 

 result is due to the immense collections made by the trained body of 

 native collectors acting for Mr. A. Dbncaster, and his immense series 

 of specimens of innumerable species, all in most perfect condition, and 

 linking the Indian fauna with that of China and Japan on the one 

 hand, and- the Malayan sub-region on the othei*, must be seen to be 

 fully appreciated. I am mu^h indebted to him for supplying me with 

 specimens for description, and to the Hon'ble W. Rothschild for the 



