Vol. LI. LONDON. AUGUST and SEPTEMBER. 1919. No. 7 



POPULAR AND PRACTICAL ENT0M0L0(;Y. 



COLLECTIN'G TERRESTRIAL ARTHROPODS IN BARBADOS AND AnTIGUA, BRITISH 



West Indies, 

 by dayton stoner, iowa city, iowa. 



L Barbados. 



The data upon which the following notes are based were secured by the 

 writer and Mrs. Stoner during the time spent on the islands of Barbados and 

 Antigua as meml»ers of the Barbados-Antigua Expedition sent out by the 

 University of Iowa in the spring of 1918. The time between May 9 and June 

 17 was spent at Barbados. Collecting at Antigua was done between June 19 

 and July 19. 



The island of Barbados is situated in 13° 4' North latitude and 59"^ 37' 

 West longitude, and is the most easterly of the Antillean chain. It is about 

 twenty-one miles long by fourteen broad, with an area of 166 square miles 

 and a population of about 200,000, nine- tenths of which is biack. The strata 

 forming the basement series of Barbados consist of siliceous and calcareous 

 sandstones and clays. About six-sevenths of the total area of the island is 

 covered by a cap of cora^ rock which is more or less fiat, and rises in a series of 

 terraces to Mt. Hillaby in the "Scotland district," which is 1,104 feet in height. 

 An area of approximately 6,000 acres at the northern and eastern side of the 

 island has received that name on account of its peaked and hilly character. 

 The remainder of the island is low and flat or at most slightly rolling, with few 

 swamps and marshes and but two or three fresh water streams of any importance. 

 Practically all the tillable land is under sugar cane, and but few remnants of the 

 forests which once covered the island now remain. The annual rainfall is 

 about sixty inches, and usually comes in the form of showers during the sum- 

 mer months. The drj^ season occurs in the winter and early spring months. 



On account of the slight physiographic differentiation, the almost uniform 

 state of cultivation and the density of the population, Barbados is not a par- 

 ticularly favorable place for collecting insects. In addition, practically all the 

 grass land is closely grazed by goats and cattle, so that dense growths of vsgeta- 

 tion are much restricted. In general the affinities of the insect fauna are with 

 that of South America, but a number of North American and closely allied 

 forms are to be found. A few indigenous forms also occur. 



Whenever the entomologists started out on a collecting trip, the fact was 

 quickly noised abroad that strange people were collecting butterflies. How 

 the news spread so quickly was somewhat of a mystery in view of the fact that 

 telephone service is seldom available to the blacks. But in a short while groups 

 of children and older persons as well would put in their appearance and express 

 a desire first to know what we were going to do with the insects, and suggesting 

 as a probable answer that perhaps they were to be made into medicine. Having 

 been more or less satisfactorily appeased by our answers, the second thought 

 was to be of assistance — for a consideration. After a few usuallv vain attempts 



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