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This monograph is the thirteenth 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 (25% in the case of the Geometridae) of the very rich South East
Asian and Sundanian macrolepidoptera fauna. In turn, they complement a Japanese
series on The Moths of Nepal, published as supplements to the journal
Tinea.
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 accepted
generic, or even subfamilial placements. For example, in this part, the Nolidae
are treated as a much expanded group that now includes the old noctuid
subfamilies Sarrothripinae and Chloephorinae.
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, and a general index and bibliography are being
compiled. Negotiations are in progress in Malaysia to produce an Internet
edition, and a trial version of Part 3 of this series may be found at <http://www.arbec.com.my/moths>.
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