PEEFACE. 



This Work, describing and illustrating the Lepidopterous fauna of India, bas been in 

 course of preparation for several years, and the time has now come when it is 

 incumbent on me to put into a systematic form for publication and future use the 

 materials at my disposal. 



The geographical area embraced in the " Lepidoptera Indica " will be the limits 

 of the Indian Region as defined by the Himalayan mountains on the North, the 

 Suleiman and Hala mountains on the North-West, Ceylon on the South, and by 

 Burma on the East, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 



Having, in 1848, become attached to the Staff of the Museum of the East India 

 Company, then under the Directorship of Dr. Horsfield, and, as Assistant- Curator, 

 held that office until the transfer of the collections to the National Museum in 1879, 

 I had, during those years, unusually favourable opportunities for studying the Insect 

 fauna of the Indian Empire. Since the period of 1859, and the then removal of the 

 Natural History collections from the Museum, an unremitted study of the 

 Lepidopterous Insects has been maintained, as well as the acquirement of materials 

 for that purpose. 



An extensive, and presumably, the most complete collection, illustrative of this 

 portion of the Insect fauna of India, has been brought together, at considerable 

 personal outlay, and by the contributions — specially intended for this work — from 

 numerous friends and correspondents who held or are now holding positions in the 

 Civil and Military service in various parts of India. To all these my present 

 grateful acknowledgments are due for their generous aid. The most important of 

 these contributions — the enumeration of which will show their character and great 

 value, are here referred to in their chronological sequence, as follows : — 



First come those of my late friend Arthur Grote, whose earlier contributions 

 were published in the East India Company's " Catalogue of Insects " in 1857-59, 

 and who, whilst resident for many years at Allipur, near Calcutta, devoted very con- 

 siderable attention to the metamorphoses of both the butterflies and moths of that 

 district, coloured drawings of these being made by the highly-skilled native artist, 

 Munshi Zynulabdin, whom he employed for that purpose. On his retirement to 



