220 RENNELL - AN OUT OF THE WAY CORAL ISLAND 



employ large home-made dip nets, which they spread on the outer side of 

 the reef. The fish is driven into them by splashing the water. Traps are 

 similarly used in the lake. 



Among the invertebrates we particularly observed a great number of 

 spiders. Their commonness is due to the ability of small spiders to spread 

 over large areas by means of wind, suspended from the self-spun threads 

 known as gossamer. This was how spiders succeeded in being the first 

 animals to invade the volcanic island of Krakatoa, only a year after the 

 disastrous eruption of 1883 which destroyed all life there. 



We collected large numbers of insects, including dragon-flies, wasps, 

 beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers, and some stick-insects, 10 — 15 centime- 

 tres in length, which ejected a fine spray of a milky liquid when handled. 

 In soil and touchwood we found a great variety of larvae, some nearly 

 15 centimetres long — fat, pale, and maggot-like lar\'a2 of wood-borers. 

 The Rennellese must surely have thought us a little odd when they saw 

 us pop these into alcohol instead of into our mouths, as to them there is 

 no greater delicacy ! 



Finally, we collected many snails (including a fine, dull-green species 

 which lived on coconut leaves), centipedes, millipedes, harvest mites, 

 woodlice, earthworms, and similar inconspicuous creatures, which to a 

 scientist can speak volumes about immigration routes, adaptability, and 

 so forth. 



The large, agile ghost crabs (Ocypode), which live on the foreshore, 

 are interesting. They are nocturnal animals which dig long spiral galleries, 

 removing the excavated sand from the mouth of the burrow and throwing 

 it up into a hillock. At the slightest approach they vanish into their holes, 

 and it is a long time before they venture out again. 



In the lake we caught shrimps and amphipods; in the forest, land 

 crabs and many hermit crabs, which yearly make the long, laborious 

 journey over the cliff face in order to breed in the open sea, carrying 

 house and home with them in the form of a snail-shell to protect their soft, 

 spiral hind part. We also procured a fine specimen of a robber crab 

 (Birgus latro), the claws of which can bite off a man's finger. This crab 

 lives in the forest, but at night will prowl into the coconut plantations, 

 where it is said to climb the trees and cut the stalks of young coconuts. 

 At any rate, it is able to tear off the tough layer of coir and, inserting 

 the point of its claw in the "eye" of the coconut, break the shell to get 

 at the nut and eat it. 



And then there were the land leeches, which drop down from overhang- 

 ing leaves on to passers-by and suck their blood. As these creatures are 



