THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 291 



NOTES ON A TRIP TO THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 



BY H. F. WICKHAM, IOWA CITY, IOWA. 



Comparatively little is known of the insect fauna of the Bahama 

 Islands, since most of the collectors who have gone to the West Indies 

 have confined their attention chiefly to larger and better settled members 

 of this great group, and as a consequence we have a tolerably fair 

 knowledge of such of them as Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and 

 Guadaloupe, with scarcely any records from the little rocky islets of which 

 the Bahamas proper are composed. Late researches on the coast of 

 Florida have shown a close affinity between the fauna of tliat region and 

 of the Antilles, so that the study of the insects of the latter has now a 

 direct bearing on that of those of our own domain. The short sketch 

 which follows is intended merely as a preliminary account of a collecting 

 trip to certain points in the British West Indies, and no more is hoped for 

 than to give the reader a general idea of the coleopterous fauna of these 

 at the time of year during which the collections were made. Only occa- 

 sionally was it possible to land and work the country for insects, as the 

 main object of the expedition, of which the writer was a member, was the 

 study and collection of the marine invertebrata, and most of the time was 

 necessarily devoted to them. 



Regarding the general characters of the Bahama Islands, it may be 

 enough to say that they are British possessions, having been first settled 

 in 1629 by that people, but frequently changing hands until 1783; since 

 that time they have remained under English control, and are populated 

 largely by descendants of that nationality, with a very considerable 

 admixture of negroes, who, indeed, predominate on some of the islands, 

 almost to the exclusion of the whites. Excepting the very small rocky 

 islets, all are inhabited, but the soil is so light and stony that its produc- 

 tive powers are limited, and hence we find the principal exports to be 

 fruit, especially pineapples and cocoanuts. Aside from these, some of 

 the larger islands export brazilleto, yellow-wood, lignum-vitae and fustic, 

 and at one time cotton was an article of considerable commercial import- 

 ance, but is now little grown. The citrus fruits flourish, but are appar- 

 ently not exported to any great extent. The uncultivated portions of the 

 surface, which include the greater part of the whole area, are covered in 

 the main by tangled thickets of various shrubs and vines difficult of 

 penetration, and hard to work in. Owing to the broken nature of the 

 islands, farming can only be carried on in small patches and in the most 

 primitive manner. 



