458 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



of the Spanish colonization in 1509. Captain Gonzalo I""ernandez de 

 Oviedo who visited the island at that time mentions some of the 

 insects common to Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Cuba in his 

 " General and Natural History of the Indies." 



Antonio de Herrera, in his " General Chronicle of the Indies," 

 published in 15 18, gives an extensive account of a plague of ants that 

 ravaged the island in 15 18. He describes in detail the measures used 

 to control them. 



Probably the first extensive account of the insect fauna of Porto 

 Rico was given by Brother Ifiigo, a priest known as the Abbot of 

 the Sierra, who lived for many years in Porto Rico and in 1788 pub- 

 lished his " Geographical, Civil, and Political History of the Island 

 of San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico." In chapter 35 entitled " Natu- 

 ral History of the Island of Porto Rico," he dcscrilies the life history 

 and habits of many of the common insect pests of the island, includ- 

 ing several species of ants, the common temiite, the chigoe, the fire- 

 fly or " cucubano," cockroaches, ticks, bees, wasps, etc. 



The earliest recorded collection of insects in Porto Rico was made 

 by Andres Pedro Ledru and is reported in his paper entitled (trans- 

 lated) " Journey to the Island of Porto Rico in the Year 1797," pub- 

 lished in Paris in 1810. Doctor Wolcott states that, of the 46 species 

 listed in this publication, 10 can be readily identified. 



The next extensive account of insects of the island was published 

 by Dr. Augustin Stahl, of Bayamon, Porto Rico, in a work entitled 

 " Fauna de Puerto Rico." In this work, pages 82 to 102 discuss the 

 systematic classification of insects, and pages 169 to 249 list the speci- 

 mens in Stahl's collection from Cuba, Trinidad, and Porto Rico. This 

 was published in 1882. 



It seems also that a number of years before Stahl's paper. Dr. 

 Leopoldo Krug, the German Consul at Mayaguez, had been collect- 

 ing insects and that, at his invitation, the well known naturalist. 

 Dr. Juan Gundlach, of Cuba, made two trips to Porto Rico and, with 

 Krug, collected insects in various parts of the island. These collec- 

 tions were sent to Berlin for description and identification. As a 

 result Gundlach, between May, 1887, and September, 1893, published 

 the sections dealing with insects of his " Fauna Porto Ricquena " in 

 the Annals of the Spanish Society of Natural History at Madrid. 

 The insects had been identified and described not only by German 

 specialists .but also by Saussure of Switzerland and Uhler of Balti- 

 more. 



When, following the Spanish-American War, Porto Rico was taken 

 over by the United States, important advances on entomology, and 



