INTRODUCTION. 



It is proposed, in the following work, to give " a descriptive Catalogue " of a series 

 of Lepidopterous Insects, which form part of a general entomological collection from 

 Java, contained in the Museum of the Honourable East-India Company. Of this 

 collection, and of the circumstances under which it was formed, a concise account is 

 offered to the public in the preface to the Annulosa Javanica. The details there 

 given, which are accompanied with many pertinent remarks on the nature of descrip- 

 tive Catalogues in general, would effectually supersede all further remarks on my 

 part, were it not necessary, on this occasion, to point out clearly the relation of the 

 present work to that undertaken, from the same materials, by the distinguished author 

 of the Horce Entomological. My highly respected friend, William Sharp Macleay, 

 Esq., having noticed with commendation that part of the collection which relates to 

 the metamorphosis of the Javanese Lepidoptera, I feel myself called on to give in 

 this place a more minute account of the nature of these materials, and to add to 

 the details already given some further notices regarding the collection in general. 

 I am likewise desirous to declare, immediately at the commencement, the views by 

 which I propose to be guided in the present undertaking. 



When the plan of the Annulosa Javanica was first communicated to the public, it 

 was the intention of the Author to include in his work all the orders of insects ; 

 and although his labours were in the first instance directed to the Coleoptera alone, 

 yet he announced, both in the notice originally circulated and in the title of the 

 work, that they consisted in an attempt to illustrate the natural affinities and analogies 

 of the insects observed in Java, without limitation to any particular branch of 

 entomology. It is not necessary, in this place, to show the interest and importance 

 of a work of so enlarged a scope, conducted by the author of the Horae Ento- 

 mologicse ; for these must strike every person engaged in similar pursuits, what- 

 ever may be his opinion regarding that work or the peculiar views which it exhibits : 

 the interruption of this enterprize, therefore, would have been a subject of deepest 

 regret, if it had not been accompanied with an event highly advantageous to the 

 distinguished author. While the second number of the Annulosa Javanica was 

 anxiously expected, the appointment of Mr. Macleay to the office of his Britannic 

 Majesty's Commissioner of Arbitration at the Havana was announced to the public. 

 The friends of Mr. Macleay, without exception, offered him their congratulations on 



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