COLLECTING AMONG THE VOLCANOES OF EASTERN JAVA. 217 



Collecting among the volcanoes of Eastern Java. {With tu-o plates.) 



By Dr. E. A. COCKAYNE, F.E.S. 



The volcanoes of Western and Central Java, with their wonderful 

 cloak of virgin forest, have been described by many writers, notably 

 by Wallace in his classical work, Tlie Mala;/ Airhipdat/o, in which he 

 gives an account of his ascent of the Gedeh and Pangerango. The 

 drier volcanic mountains of the East end of the island have been far 

 less frequently visited, and are comparatively little known except to 

 the Dutch. It is true that both Wallace and Doherty visited the out- 

 lying Arjoeno, but neither appears to have collected on the main mass 

 of the Tengger volcanoes. Their appearance and the character of 

 their vegetation is so unlike anything I saw in Ceylon or Celebes, the 

 only two other equatorial islands I visited, and their entomological 

 wealth is obviously so great, that I think an account of my brief stay 

 at Tosari in July, 1910, may interest others, and better still perhaps 

 stimulate them to go out of their way to pay a longer and more 

 profitable visit to the locality. I can assure them it would be made 

 enjoyable by the ease and comfort of travel, and by the courtesy and 

 ready help afibrded by the Dutch, civilian or ofBcial. 



Leaving the damp heat of Soerabaya at 8.12 in the morning, I 

 travelled by train through the fertile coast plains with their rich crops 

 of rice, tobacco, and sugar cane, to Pasaroean, where I arrived about 

 9.30. Here I hired a pony and cart and was driven to Pasrepan, along 

 a broad road lined by grand avenues of tamarind, kanari, and teak trees. 

 Amongst the many fine insects seen on this part of the journey were two 

 Attacus atlas, on the underside of a huge banana leaf. They were the 

 first I had seen at rest by day. After narrowly escaping disaster in a 

 collision with a cart heavily laden with cut sugar-cane and drawn by 

 two large bulls, I reached Pasrepan and changed into a smaller cart, 

 in which the long ascent up the lower slopes of the Tengger 

 Mountains was made as far as Poespo. This part of the road is 

 bounded all the way by hedges of lantana, a flowering shrub always 

 frequented by tropical butterflies. My slow ascent was enlivened by 

 the sight of great numbers of Precis ipliita var. horsfieldi, P. eiiijone, 

 Cram., the intermediate form, P. asterie, crowds of representatives of 

 the genus Catoiisilia, and the abundant yellow Terias libi/thea, innumer- 

 able " blues," and the less frequent but more brilliant spectacle of a 

 deep purple Eaploea, probably Salf)in.c leiicostictus, or a huge orange- 

 tipped Heboiiioia ijlaucippe. At Poespo the road becomes too 

 steep for carts, and the rest of the journey, taking about 2|- 

 hours, is performed on a small but hardy native pony. The 

 vegetation during the ascent gradually changes in character as 

 more and more temperate forms replace the tropical and appear 

 amongst the exotic shrubs and graceful tree-ferns. Above Poespo the 

 road at first runs through extensive coffee plantations growing in the 

 shade of forest trees crowned with clusters of huge red blossoms and 

 inhabited by numerous bands of monkeys. 



In the shady parts hundreds of the dull brown Satyrid, Sadarga 



nala were noticed, and many of the beautiful Lyc^enid Ilerda epicles, 



whose wings are splashed with orange and purple, were flitting 



about the edges of the road. The swift low flight of Catopsilia snjlla 



September 15th, 1913 



