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The extensive freshly collected material avai1able arose partly through
the activities of the author under the auspices of the Royal Geographical
Society - Sarawak Government Expedition and Survey of the Gunung Mulu
National Park (1977-8), whilst financed by a Government Grant-in-Aid
for Scientific Investigations administered by the Royal Society, and on a
previous expedition (1965) to G. Kinabalu. Another large part of this
material was accumulated and prepared by Col. M.G. Allen and Mr T.W.
Harman during a series of expeditions in Brunei. I am grateful to Dr R.
& Frau E. Bender, and Herr W.A. Nassig for access to the Sumatran
material collected by Dr E.W. Diehl and others, the basis of the
Heterocera Sumatrana Society project, which enabled additions to be made
to the known distributions of several species. Similar information for
Peninsular Malaysia was gained by examining the collection of Mr H.S.
Barlow and those of the Forest Research Institute, Kepong, and the
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
I am grateful to Dr Tho Yow Pong, Dr M.J. Bascombe
and Mr D.J. Carter for
allowing me to use their colour slides of bombycoid larvae. The colour
plates of adults were photographed by Mr Bernard D'Abrera
gratis.
My thanks are due to the University Museum, Oxford, Dr J.E. Rawhins (Carnegie
Museum, Pittsburgh) and Dr O. Karsholt (Zoological Museum, Copenhagen) for
lending or photographing type material in their care. Dr Tho Yow Pong,
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, and Mr Tan Chai Lin, Malaysian
Agricultural Research and Development Institute, kindly allowed me to
incorporate unpublished data in their care on host-plants.
The taxonomic work was undertaken at the British
Museum (Natural History) with the permission of the Trustees and with the
assistance and support of the Department of Entomology, particularly the
Macrolepidoptera Section. I am also extremely grateful to Herr W.A. Nassig
for his extensive, helpful comments on drafts of the sections on
Saturniidae, Eupterotidae and Brahmaeidae, and numerous discussions. I
apologise for the loss of an umlaut on
the 'a' of his name throughout the text, and for the lack of accents
generally. Dr R. and Frau E. Bender pointed out a few failings in the
lasiocampid text, and Mr W. Hogenes assisted with the untangling of the
genus Macroglossum.
The series is dependent on the continuing support and energies of Mr
H.S. Barlow, who also acts as a longstop for errors in the text (the blame
for any that escape is mine).
Finally I would like to thank my wife, Phillipa, for once again taking on
most of the burden of preparing the typescript amongst many other demands
on her time.
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