Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/12

 PREFACE many millions of rupees annually, whilst every household in India suffers loss on account of the Grain Moth {Sitotroga cerealella), and what housewife, be she never so careful, but has found reason to bewail the damage caused by Clothes Moths {Tinea pellionella, TricJiophaga abruptella, etc.) ? The present and subsequent papers endeavour to indicate our present state of knowledge (I might almost better say our want of knowledge) of the life-histories of these small moths, so far as they are at present known in India, and some indications are given of the early stages of three hundred and ninety-six species, the information given being based upon records already published in various sources and on unpublished records derived from the files of the Entomological Section of the Pusa Kesearch Institute. The scattered manner in which these records have been published hitherto is indicated by the references given under each species and it is hopeless to expect the ordinary worker in India, without a veritable library specially gathered to this end, to be able to consult all these references at first-hand. I have therefore consider- ed it better to bring together all the published information, even at the risk of a certain amount of repetition. It is hoped that these papers will be of use, not only to the Entomological Staffs of the Agricultural Department who are interested primarily in crop-pests, but also to those collectors in India who ordinarily occupy themselves only with the butterflies and larger moths, mainly because of the scanty available informa- tion regarding the smaller forms. It should be emphasized that these papers deal only with life-histories and not with control measures, in the case of pests or with classification. Both of these aspects may perhaps be treated of hereafter. Pusa: T. Bainbrigge Fletcher, 25th Junef 1919, _ Imperial Entomologist