NOTES ON THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF SARAWAK. 211 



cosiidae : these are brightly coloured moths diurnal in habit and 

 usually of feeble flight, whilst the great majority of ^ them are 

 " mimics." One very common species, Ponipilon subcyanea, has 

 a deep blue colouration much like the Euplcea mulciber male but, 

 it should be added, the flight is so different that we can hardly 

 suppose that an observant bird would fail to distinguish between 

 them ; other Chalcosiids resemble Danais, Ideopsis, various 

 Pieridse, and also species belonging to other families of moths 

 such as the Euschemidae. The phenomenon which is rightly or 

 wrongly called mimicry is exhibited to a high degree both in South 

 Africa and in Sarawak. 



As might be anticipated, the Lepidoptera, in both countries, 

 are preyed upon by innumerable species of Ichneumon and Bracon 

 flies. In Sarawak the genus Iphyaidax of the Braconidae is very 

 rich in species, some of them being very large, and having ovi- 

 positors stretching for a length of four inches or more (cp. /. insignis 

 Sm.). Those minute hymenopterous parasites, the Chalcidae, 

 are also exceedingly numerous : I have reared them from the 

 cases of a wasp {Pison), from larvae of a phytophagous beetle 

 {Lema), and even from the pupae of an ant. 



Amongst the Ants very characteristic of the Sarawak jungles 

 are the numerous species of the genus Polyrachis. Certain species 

 of these large spiny creatures make silken nests of a material much 

 like spider's web : the silk comes from the body of the helpless 

 pupa which, during spinning operations, is carried in the mouth 

 of the worker ant who dots it about her and there wherever she 

 considers it proper to attach a strand. This habit is found also in 

 the QLcophylla smaragdina, whose nests are built of leaves firmly 

 united together by bands of silk. In the genus Campanotus, found 

 also in vSouth Africa, the Bornean C. gigas is considerably bigger 

 than any pecies to be found here. Of Termites Sarawak has many 

 species, and characteristic of that region are the arboreal nests of 

 these insects : such nests, spheroidal or irregular in shape, and of 

 about one or two feet in diameter, are commonly found built round 

 the branches of a jungle tree. Apparently that type of nest is not 

 known in South Africa, but Mr. Swierstra considers that they may 

 occur in the eastern sub-tropical districts. 



Amongst the Coleoptera the Lucanidae of Borneo are numerous 

 and large : here they are few and comparatively small.* On the 

 other hand, the Scarabeidae, more particularly the true Scarabaeini, 

 are mo:"e richly developed in South Africa. In the Cetoniid family 

 Sarawak has numerous brilliant green forms of fairly large size, 

 and this same colouration appears in the genus Anomala. The 

 brilliant green colour of the Cetoniids is also parallelled in the 

 Buprestids of Sarawak, whilst the South African repres ntatives 

 of these families are not so characteristically green, and the differ- 

 ence is very striking. In the Melolonthidae, whilst those of South 

 Africa are probably at least as numerous as those of Sarawak, 



* I believe that the beetles which frequent the shrubs of the Transvaal 

 veld during the summer months are more watchful and alert than those of 

 the Sarawak jungle which being less apprehensi^'e of danger are more easily 

 captured. 



