1840.] On the Entomology of the Himalayas and of India, 105 



VIII. — On the JEntomology of the Himalayas and of India. — By the 

 Rkv F. W. Hope, F.R.S., F.L.S., ^c, President of the. Entomolo- 

 gical Society of London.'^ 



It may by some be considered a proof of presumption, that any indi- 

 vidual should undertake to describe the entomo-geogvaphical chnracter 

 of a country which he has never visited ; and bold, I am willing to allow, 

 is the attempt to embrace, in my views, not only the distribution of In- 

 sects in the Himalayas, but those also of the whole Continent of India 

 and its adjacent islands. Possessing, however, one of the richest Cabi- 

 nets of Oriental Entomology to be found in this or any other country, 

 the major part of the species collected at Calcutta, Madras, Poonvi, and 

 Singapore, and in the islands of Java and Ceylon ; and tli rough the kind- 

 ness of my friends, the late lamented General Hardwicke, Colonels Sykes 

 and Whitehill, Captains Law, Smee, and Smith, having access to their 

 rich and extensive collections from Nepal, Bombay, and the Deccan ; I 

 may be enabled, perhaps, from such a mass of materials, to offer some 

 new facts respecting the geographical distribution of Insects, a subject 

 apparently little studied, and certainly not sufficiently appreciaterl. It 

 is, indeed, with diffidence that I undertake a task beset on all sides with 

 difficulties ; and before I enter on it, I claim the indulgence of my 

 readers, and solicit them to regard the present attempt merely as an 

 outline sketch, which can afterwards be filled up with greater accuracy, 

 as our acqu lintance with the nature of the soil, and the forms of animal 

 and vegetable life belonging to the East, become better known. The 

 entomological character of a country is particularly influenced by three 

 things ; first, by its temperature ; secondly, by its vegetation ; and, 

 lastly, by its soil ; and, perhaps, a few remarks on these subjects (relating 

 chiefly to the Eastern world) may not here be deemed out of place, be- 

 fore entering more fully into the entomology of the Himalayas and of 

 India. 



* The Author has to apologize to the Rev. Mr. Hope and to his readers for the long 

 delay which has occurred in the publishing of this vahiable Paper, written for him in 

 1834, and which has been in type for a considerable time. The Insects of the Author's 

 collection winch Mr. Hope has described, were collected in the neighbourhood of 

 Saharunpore, in the valleys of the Himalayas, and on the mountains in the neighbour- 

 hood of Mussooree, at 6,500 feet of an elevation in 30° of N. latitude. The reader will 

 observe that many of the desideiata required by Mi-. H. on temperature and vegetation, 

 are detailed throughout the " Illustrations," and he cannot fail to be struck with the re- 

 markable c incidence in opinion, respecting the distribution of Insects as given by Mr. 

 Hope, with that of the Author on the geographical distribution of the Flora of the plains 

 aud mountains of India.— J, F. K. 



