VI PBEFACE. 



The Ceylonese fauna is perhaps the one that has been the 

 best worked, and the only one where any large study of the 

 earlier stages has been made; the collections of Dr. Thwaites, 

 and the earlier collections of Messrs. Mackwood, E. E. Green, 

 and many others, were all described by Mr. Moore in his 

 ' Lepidoptera of Ceylon/ and the drawings of larvse figured 

 by him ; whilst the later collections of Messrs. Mackwood, 

 Green, Butt, and others, all now in the British Museum, 

 have been described by myself in the part of the ' Illustra- 

 tions of Heterocera ' to be shortly issued. 



In the Assamese and Burmese regions the fine collections 

 made by Mr. W. Doherty in Upper Assam, the Naga Hills, 

 and various localities in the Burmese hill-ranges, now in 

 Mr. Elwes's collection, are described for the first time, as 

 also the collection made by Mr. E. Y. Watson in Burma, and 

 presented by him to the British Museum, the collection made 

 by L. Fea and lent to me by the Genoa Museum, and that 

 made by Mr. Doherty in the Tenasserim Valley lent to me 

 by Mr. H. Druce; whilst the collections of the Ban- 

 goon Museum, and those made in the Khasi Hills by the 

 Rev. W. Hamilton, both described by Col. Swinhoe, have 

 also been available ; as also have the few species described 

 from the Andamans and Nicobars. It is, however, from 

 these eastern regions that by far the largest number of 

 novelties will appear, and sufficient is known of the fauna to 

 show how largely Malayan types are there represented. 



Thus, although the localities in which systematic collecting 

 has been done are few, they represent all the extremes of the 

 various climatic differences which occur in India, so that it 

 may be assumed that sufficient is known of the Heterocerous 

 fauna to give some approach to completeness, to prove that 

 it is quite as diverse and specialized as in other parts of the 

 world, and to show that the main lines of geographical dis- 



