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This
monograph is the seventh to be published in a series planned on the Bornean 'macrolepidoptera' superfamilies Cossoidea, Zygaenoidea, Bombycoidea
(including Sphingidae), Noctuoidea, Geometroidea, Calliduloidea and Castnioidea.
Parts will appear over the next few years as regularly as the vagaries of life
permit. The parts printed and dates of publication so far are shown on the back
cover.
The author is in frequent communication with the Heterocera Sumatrana team
organised by Dr. E.W. Diehl, and the two series of publications complement each
other to provide, for the first time, fully illustrated reference works to a
large proportion of the very rich South
East Asian and Sundanian macrolepidoptera fauna.
The series is based on a large amount of recently collected material that gives
some indication of habitat preference for the species concerned. Data on early
stages and host-plants are being collated and reviewed.
Literature on the Oriental fauna is voluminous but often without illustrations
and with poor, superficial descriptions. Synonymy presented often proves to be
erroneous. Generic placements and higher classification are often found to be
similarly superficial on close examination. This problem is dealt with more
fully in the author's introduction for his Taxonomic Appendix to H.S. Barlow's An
Introduction to the Moths of South East Asia. This series on the moths of
Borneo is seen as an opportunity to establish a fresh, more stable foundation
for the study of the Indo-Australian tropical macrolepidoptera, an opportunity
facilitated by access to the wealth of historical material held in The Natural
History Museum, London, and other European Museums. The centralisation of this
material is a boon for the comparative studies necessary to provide the stable
foundation just referred to.
The reader must be prepared, however, for major changes to previously acepted
generic, or even subfamilial placements. For example, in this part, amost all
genera are assigned to tribes in a review of the higher classification of the
Ennominae that departs significantly in a number of instances from what had
previously been accepted.
As the series is completed it may be revised and reissued in three or four bound
volumes as a complete reference work. A field guide incorporating the colour
plates is also being considered.
Hard copy is available from:
Southene Sdn Bhd
P.O Box 10139
50704 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Phone : +603 4022 2653
Fax : +603 4022 2267
Email : hsbar@pc.jaring.my
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