PREFATORY NOTE. 



With the completion of the present volume our knowledge of 

 the Hawk-Moths of the Indian Empire is now so advanced 

 that a considerable time must elapse before any important 

 additions can be made to it. 



The authors and the editors have tried to make the volume 

 as complete as possible, and the importance of structure, 

 as well as pattern, is emphasized by the inclusion of full 

 morphological details and illustrations. To this is added, 

 for most species, an account of the early stages and illustra- 

 tions of them, much of which is here published for the first 

 time. 



By kind permission of Lord Rothschild and Dr. K. Jordan, 

 free use has been made of their 'Revision of the Sphingidse,' 

 published in 1903. 



The text-figures of structure, excepting figs. 1-4, selected 

 for the present work, were all reproduced from Rothschild and 

 Jordan's book by Mr. W. H. T. Tarns, of the Natural History 

 Museum. 



The opportunity is taken here to acknowledge the useful 

 and ready help received from the Editor, Mr. Tarns and the 

 authors in the task of preparing the work for publication ; 

 a special debt is owing to Mr. Tarns for also reading through 

 the page -proofs. Thanks are tendered to the printers for 

 the very careful marking of the proofs. Acknowledgement 

 is tendered to the India Office for permission to use twenty 

 of the blocks illustrating Hampson's work (1892). The sources 

 of other figures are acknowledged by the authors. 



