548 LAND ANIMALS 



to termites, the large tropical cockroaches, various snakes, and the 

 wall-climbing geckonid lizards deserve particular mention. The last are 

 especially active in transferring from hollow trees to the habitations 

 provided by man. One small shack in the tropical rain-forest of 

 Panama had been built but a few weeks before it had one of these 

 flycatching geckos resident therein. In the nipa palm houses of the 

 Philippine Islands, the associated animals depend in part on the sur- 

 roundings. Scorpions, spiders, centipedes, millipeds, and harvestmen 

 are present, Cockroaches head the list of insects, termites follow ; Ben- 

 galia flies feed upon the termites. Ants and book lice are common. 

 Caddis flies from near-by streams rest under the eaves. Ant lion pits 

 occur in the dry soil under the stilt-mounted houses. The cocoanut 

 nymphalid butterfly {Amathusia phiddippus) sometimes nests in the 

 houses. Skipper butterflies occur in rural regions. Mosquitoes, flies, 

 wasps of various sorts, bees, beetles, including three species of 

 Lampyridae and the bamboo borers (Bostrychidae), complete the 

 usual list of invertebrates. 



A tree frog {Polypedates leucomystax) , several geckonid lizards, 

 a large monitor lizard (Varanus) which is a chicken thief, several bird 

 species including the sparrow, Passer montanus, which both roosts and 

 nests in these houses, and bats, both insect- and fruit-eating, make up 

 the more usual vertebrate list. 



The clearing of tropical regions, if carried to an extreme and if 

 long continued, produces an impoverishment of the native fauna. 

 This is especially well shown if one compares Java with Borneo, or 

 Puerto Rico with the neighboring Santo Domingo. In Puerto Rico 

 the native mammalian fauna has practically disappeared, and even the 

 iguanid lizards whose flesh is palatable have become extinct. 



In India the general story is similar to that for North America 

 but with a tropical set of animals. The increasing agricultural pres- 

 sure has reduced the carrying power for wild life of the Indian steppes. 

 The larger animals disappeared from cultivated regions in the fol- 

 lowing order: (1) rhinoceros, wild pig, and wild buffalo, all of which 

 breed in swamps; (2) elephant, lion, and tiger; (3) nilgai {Portax 

 pictus), deer, and antelope. Most of these are still present in some 

 numbers in a few favorable regions. This general process has been 

 accelerated in the last 300 years; within 150 years, ll°/o of the acreage 

 near Oudh came under cultivation. Here and elsewhere in India, 

 marked changes have occurred even since 1880. Near Oudh, the wolf 

 is the only large carnivore now left vo. densely populated regions. 



The upper Ganges plain, now practically treeless, once supported 

 a forest which was thorny toward the south and west and luxuriant 



