200 [September, 



only be obtained by the not very sportsmanlike method of blowing 

 them up with gun-cotton during torpedo-practice ; moreover, many of 

 them are poisonous at times, and we had to be careful not to repeat 

 the experience of Captain Cook during his visit to these islands, as 

 related in the account of his second Voyage. 



Our next move was round the north point of " Santo," as this 

 island is familiarly called, and on the afternoon of August 5th, I had 

 a few hours on shore at the mission station tit Terebu. Here I got 

 a few nice land-shells and beetles, including the handsomest Mordella 

 I have ever seen ; butterflies were very scarce, but I found a few 

 young larva? of Papilio Wypsieles on orange, and succeeded in rearing 

 them to the perfect state. We arrived at Port Fila on the Sth, and 

 remained there until the 131 h ; during this stay 1 found several 

 Coleoptera not previously met with, including a very fine Brenthid, 

 various Cossonidce, Histeridw, small Heterowiera, weevils allied to 

 Act/lies, and a good sized Passalus ? in numbers, mostly under logs in 

 the plantations. A rather handsome linear red and black beetle of 

 the family Hispidce {Promecoilieca sp.) was plentiful on the young 

 coco-nut palms, eating the softer tissue of the fronds, and reported to 

 do much damage to them at times. Anosia plexippus and Acrcea 

 Andromache were now plentiful, and a fresh butterfly, Atello Bowdenia, 

 Butl., was observed, but it was very shy and difficult to catch. 



The fine lofty island of Eramango was visited on the 13th, but 

 too late in the day to admit of landing, though a number of large 

 SpTiingideB and other moths were attracted off to the ship by the 

 electric search-light which was burned in the evening. We moved 

 over to Tauna the next day, and anchored in Wei Sisi Bay, quite close 

 to the foot of the volcano. Landing in the afternoon, I saw a good 

 many butterflies, chiefly Euploeas, but all too high up in the trees to 

 be easily taken. Beetles seemed rather more plentiful than usual, 

 and I got a good many that were new to me, including one of the 

 most beautiful Glerids I have ever seen ; this was running and flying 

 about the tree-trunks just in the style of a Gicindelid, and at first I 

 mistook it for one of the smaller cylindrical' forms of that group. On 

 this occasion I was assisted in collecting by some small native boys, 

 and it was rather startling to see them catch and handle large and 

 savage-looking ground-spiders, which 1 was bottling on behalf of a 

 friend in Sydney, and which 1 would not on any account have picked 

 up without a pair of forceps. 



Proceeding on our way to Noumea, on the 10th we anchored off 

 the chief French station in the Loyalty Islands, Chepenehe, in the 



