No. 5. ] ^ Decade of Entomology. 7 



Maskell, G. C. Dudgeon, P. Moore, W. L. Selater, L. de Nieeville, W. 

 F. H. Blandford, G. B. Buckton, O. E. Janson, F. A. Skuse and R. 

 Newstead ; while the kindly sympathy and advice from time to time 

 afPorded hy different members of the United States Entomological 

 Department, and especially by Dr. C. V. Riley, the United States En- 

 tomologist, also from Miss Ormerod and others engaged in the study of 

 Economic Entomology in different quarters of the globe, has materially 

 lightened the burden of the work. 



In connection with the determinations adopted for those insects 

 which it has been necessary to identify specifically in Calcutta, correction 

 will frequently be required hereafter. This has been unavoidable owing 

 to the confused state of much of the literature connected with Indian 

 Entomology, and to the great jdifficulty experienced in getting specimens 

 compared with the original types which are mostly preserved in Europe. 

 Provided, however, that the system of carefully preserving, not only the 

 specimens themselves, but also the original, and all the tickets on each 

 specimen in the Indian Museum collection, be as rigidly adhered to in 

 the future as it has in the past, no confusion will arise on this account, 

 and no difficulty will be experienced in making the necessary correc- 

 tions, as the more complete working out of the various groups renders 

 this possible. 



The Museum now possesses large and representative, though by no 

 means complete, collections of all the more important groups of the 

 insect fauna of India. These have been arranged and named to the 

 extent of making it possible to determine with very considerable accuracy 

 the great majority of the commoner, besides many of the rarer 

 species. At the same time the nature of most of the more important 

 species which affect crops has been ascertained, and their habits in a large 

 number of cases to some extent traced. 



The subject is so vast that what can be done by any one individual 

 or group of individuals in the space of ten years must necessarily be com- 

 paratively insignificant, when measured by that which remains to be 

 accomplished. But it is not too much to claim that many of the pre- 

 liminary difficulties have been overcome, and at least one stage of the 

 path laid out for further advance. 



