j PREFACE. 



shrubs, and trees, are extremely abundant in Java ; while such as in more temperate 

 climates are commonly found in various situations near the surface of the earth, are 

 limited to a few families. At the same time, however, it may be well to bear in mind, 

 on regarding the immense proportion of herbivorous insects in the collection, that 

 from the nature of Dr. Horsfield's more immediate pursuits, he was particularly led 

 to collect on plants. 



From the plain just mentioned, in which, on account of the -extension of agriculture 

 and a numerous population, the variety of vegetable and animal productions is neces- 

 sarily limited, Dr. Horsfield often made journeys, in different directions, through the 

 more wild and uninhabited parts of the island. Some of these were undertaken 

 almost exclusively for entomological research, and were particularly directed at the 

 proper seasons to a long range of hills extending parallel to the southern coast of the 

 island, and rising to an elevation of 2,000 feet above the level of the ocean. 



The base of this range is of a mixed nature ; partly calcareous, partly trappean, 

 and the hills are covered with trees and shrubs, although in many places the vegeta- 

 tion is less abundant and luxuriant than in the volcanic district, which constitutes a 

 long series in the centre of the island. The great bulk, however, of the Coleoptera 

 to be described in the following pages, was collected in the southern ranges, or on 

 hills of nearly the same elevation, near the foot of the large volcanos, in the centre of 

 the island. And here maybe stated a curious circumstance in entomological geogra- 

 phy, observed by Dr. Horsfield, namely, that the temperature which exists from an 

 elevation of 1,000 to that of 2,000 feet above the level of the ocean, is most produc- 

 tive in Coleopterous insects ; and, consequently, that this order occurred most abun- 

 dantly in the southern and lower central ranges. The Lepidopterai on the other 

 hand, appeared to be most abundant at an elevation of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, 

 that is on the declivities of the high volcanic peaks. On such lofty situations, the 

 luxuriance of vegetation greatly exceeds that of the southern ranges ; and here, at 

 the height of nearly 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, multitudes of the most bril- 

 liant and rare Lepidoptera were taken, and from the quantity of larvae observed by 

 Dr. Horsfield, he conceives that many more species remain still to be collected. 



If the collection can be considered defective, Dr. Horsfield imagines that it is only 

 scanty in such species as may be peculiar to the districts which extend from the 

 immediate confines of the ocean to an elevation of 200 feet. On the south coast the 

 hills rise so abruptly from the sea to an elevation of several hundred feet, that proba- 

 bly few species were lost by these shores not having been examined ; but along the 

 northern coast of the island, which in many cases is low, and bounded by extensive 

 plains of sand, there possibly remains much to be discovered. 



It 



