No. 5,] -^ Decade of Entomology. 5 



testify to the warmth with whieh the scheme was taken up by Entomo- 

 loo^ists in other parts of the world. Reference may further be made in 

 this place to an excellent descriptive catalogue of the Mantidse of the 

 world commenced independently on behalf of the Museum by the late 

 Mr. Wood-Mason, who has not been spared to finish his undertaking-. 



The review would not be complete without some mention of the life- 

 work of Mr. Lionel de Niceville, whose official connection with the 

 Museum was severed iu 1884, but who has since continued to make it his 

 head-quarters for the prosecution of his studies connected with the Rho- 

 palocera. His extensive work on the Butterflies of India, orio'ma.Wy 

 undertaken in collaboration with Major G. F. H. Marshall, and for the 

 past nine years industriously continued by himself alone, is now ad vane ^ 

 ing towards completion. Not only is it, as a whole, the standard work 

 on the subject with which it deals, but each successive volume contains a 

 greater wealth of information than its predecessor. 



"While the gradual arrangement of the collections was proceeding in 

 the Museum, attention was from time to time drawn to the enormous 

 extent of the damage annually caused to agricultural crops in India by 

 insects of many kinds. Previous to 1884 Mr. Wood-Mason had been 

 deputed to investigate the subject of the tea-bug and tea-mite of Assam 

 and had also, from time to time, furnished what information was avail- 

 able about other injurious species. No attempt, however, had been made 

 to deal with the matter systematically. Indeed, owing to the unarranged 

 condition of the general collection, it was quite impossible to ascertain 

 even the identity of the majority of the species concerned. 



In 18S8, on the suggestion of Sir Edward Buck, the writer of this 

 note undertook unofficially an investigation upon the subject of the wheat 

 and rice weevil of India. His report was published by the Government 

 with the approval of the Trustees, as the first number of a serial entitled 

 Notes on Economic Entomology. A second number of a slighter nature 

 on Insecticides afterwards appeared in the same form, but it was appa- 

 rent that further organization would be required to cope with so large an 

 investigation as that of the insects which attack crops generally in India. 

 The matter was taken up by the Trustees on the suggestion of Sir 

 Edward Buck, audit was ultimately decided to make the investigation of 

 the economic entomology of India a regular feature of the work of th® 

 Entomological Section of the Museum, the results to be published as 

 materials accumulated, in the form oca periodical to be entitled Indian 

 Museum Notes which should be issued by the Trustees and published 

 under the authority of the Government of India, in the Revenue and 

 Agricultural Department ; the articles to be signed by their respective 



