AUTHORS PREFACE. IX 



species discovered since 1903. Little was known of the 

 early stages of any Hawk-Moths when the ' Revision ' was 

 published, and Mell's work, which is of real scientific value, is 

 the first to give an account of the early stages of any Indian 

 Hawk-Moths. It deals with the species occurring in South 

 China, and contains many excellent plates of species common 

 to S. China and India. Permission was granted to quote 

 freely from Mell's work, and this we have done in respect 

 of the larvae and pupae of species occurring in India but not 

 bred by us. Seitz, in his great work on the ' Macrolepidoptera 

 of the World,' follows the ' Revision ' very closely. He gives 

 many excellent plates of the moths. 



Miles Moss, in his work on the ' Sphingidae of Para,' has 

 very interesting notes on the life -history and habits of the 

 Hawk-Moths of South America, and some excellent plates 

 of the curious larvae and pupae of that region. 



All our specimens have been identified by Lord Rothschild 

 and Dr. Jordan, at the Tring Museum. New species and sub- 

 species discovered by us have been described and named 

 by the same authorities, to whom our best thanks are due 

 for the great assistance and advice they have given us in this 

 and other matters. 



The work of putting the manuscript into shape for publica- 

 tion, of preparing the bibliography, glossary and indices, and 

 of correcting the proofs, has devolved upon Mr. G. Talbot 

 as sub-editor. We thank him for all the trouble he has taken, 

 and for the efficient way in which he has carried out the task. 

 We most certainly could not have coped with this work in 

 anything like the manner in which Mr. Talbot's experience 

 has enabled him to do. The arrangement of the figures in the 

 plates and text has been done jointly by Messrs. Tarns and 

 Talbot. 



We are very greatly indebted to Mr. Tarns for undertaking 

 the self-imposed task of making the large number of photo- 

 graphs used to illustrate the text. These comprise not 



