V 
Preface. 
The present 14 th volume dealing in 600 pages with the Bombyces and Sphinges of the Ethiopian Region, 
is the first volume of exotic Moths that has been completed. Although the serial numbers of this Division were 
published very sporadically between those of the other Heterocera-volumes, it was possible to accomplish the 
elaboration of the enormous material in hardly three years. I was especially keen on completing this volume, 
since at the present time, when the Ethiopian Region is being made more and more accessible day by day, 
continuous discoveries of new forms would probably soon antiquate the volume, so that the end of the volume 
would finally disagree with its beginning, if its publication had lasted for a long period of time. 
Moreover, it was of great consequence that nearly all the chapters compiled in this volume required 
their being elaborated by special authors. Excepting the Arctiidae, since Kirby’s Catalogue which is now 
antiquated, no comprehensive compilation of the Ethiopian Bombyces had been undertaken anymore. The 
literature on them was enormously dispersed and, above all, there was no possibility of using good illustrations. 
The completion of the present volume was most urgent and of the greatest advantage to the public, because 
a volume for the identification of the Bombyces was more essential and sought for than any other volume. 
Regarding the Indian, Australian, and Nearctic Regions, the “Fauna of India”, the works of the Australian 
lepidopterologists, the Catalogues by Dyar, Packard, the fundamental work by Smith Abbot, etc., have at 
least provided a basis affording certain clues; Tropical Africa, however, was without any preliminary comprehen¬ 
sive studies. A third reason why the 14 th volume was preferred was that rather vast material was at hand 
in Germany from those countries which had formerly been German Colonies, and that from the time when 
Germany was expelled from the Ethiopian Region it was to be expected that the great influx of material 
would stop, which had formerly been directed to the German Museums by the extraordinarily large number 
of collectors and explorers in the German Colonies. It was only now possible, by the willing aid of the officials 
and daily users of the Berlin Museum, to accomplish a comprehensive treatise founded upon the still relatively 
abundant material of the Berlin Zoological Museum. 
The number of newly described forms states what great material stored in this Museum had not yet 
been elaborated. More than 470 new names have been established and nearly all these forms have also been 
figured. Many of these novelties differ so much from all those hitherto known that it was found necessary to 
establish 62 new genera. 
Thus it was also most welcome to gain the collaborating help of the managers of the Berlin Zoological 
Museum and the permanent users of its collections of lepidoptera. Owing to their excellent relations to foreign 
countries it was also possible to profit by the large English Museums in a far better way than this might have 
been expected under other circumstances. 
In this way it was possible to obtain such treatises on some divisions that will have to be acknowledged 
also by the most rigorous critics. It was especially Christopher Aurivillius who provided us in the present 
volume, in 80 pages and 12 plates, with a treatise on the African Lasiocampidae which, considering the former 
gaps in our knowledge of these frequently rare lepidoptera, must be regarded as an unparallelled promotion of 
