18.82. j 259 



green patches were caused by a densely growing Sedum, whose bright 

 yellow and sweetly smelling flowers were just coming into bloom. 

 There were also large patches of Chenopodium growing luxuriantly 

 among the tamarisk and elsewhere, and near the shore Saaeda maritima 

 and Beta maritima in plenty. Among the Chenopodium, a Pyrale, 

 which seems identical with a species I have taken in Peru, was 

 abundant, and I also obtained a single example of another species of 

 Pyrale, which I have likewise taken both, in Brazil and Peru. Un- 

 fortunately, it was a dull afternoon, with, frequent misty showers, and 

 only a gleam of sunshine at rare intervals, and a strong breeze blowing. 

 It alw r ays blows here, I believe. During the gleams of sun, I noticed 

 two kinds of butterflies : a Pieris, which looked uncommonly like 

 rapes, and which I missed shamefully several times, and two specimens 

 of an obscure little Lycoena. Among the Chenopodium I obtained five 

 small and prettily marked Pterophori, and from the tamarisk bushes a 

 plume which appears to be identical with Agdistis Bennettii* Among 

 the same bushes there were numbers of a dull coloured Scoparia, and 

 a very small whitish Tinea, but the moment they were dislodged with 

 the beating stick, they were blown away by the strong wind, and I was 

 only able to secure a couple of them. Two species of dragon-flies were 

 plentiful, but also, on account of the wind, difficult to catch, and I 

 obtained but two — one possessing a bright claret coloured body, and 

 the other dull golden-green — perhaps, sexes of the same species. 

 Besides the moths mentioned above, I secured a pretty little yellow 

 Noctua, allied to Micra, and two species of Geometer. In the seed- 

 pods of Cassia, a Tortrix larva was plentiful, and I gathered a couple 

 of dozen of them.f Coleoptera and Hemiptera were very scarce, but 

 Orthoptera were abundant, and I noticed many species, besides hearing 

 them all around me. The Hymenoptera were represented by a single 

 large, dark blue, ichneumon-like insect, having large, bright yellow 

 antenna?, which made it very conspicuous on the wing. They were 

 busy collecting honey from the flowers of the Sedum. We left St. 

 Yincent on the 4th January for Cape of Good Hope, where we shall 

 remain for about a fortnight, and then proceed to Australia. 



H. M. S. "Espiegle," at Sea : 

 21th January, 1882. 



* A. tamariris, ?. — Eds. 



t I placed these pods in a large wide-mouthed bottle, and in a day or two observed many of 

 the larvse had crawled to the sides of the bottle and were hanging, dead, and, upon examination, 

 I found all the pods covered with mildew, and every larva dead. One which I placed in a small 

 pill box by itself, for the purpose of figuring, spun a cocoon of fine white silk, and on the 2uth 

 January produced a moth. — G. P. M. 



