INTRODUCTION. lxxiil 



possess wings, but very rarely use them, as well as a harmless 

 but very troublesome Gryllotalpa, much dreaded by ladies, 

 which much resembles Sphinx convolvuli in its reckless flight. 

 Who has not been disturbed at supper-time in the East Indies 

 by swarms of termites suddenly flying in and out, or still worse, 

 by ill-smelling Orthoptera ? or the intolerable itching caused by 

 the species of Lepidoptera mentioned above ? Who has not 

 been compelled, by the ravages of termites in linen chest or 

 library, to utter the socialistic wish that he had no private 

 property ? And above all, among those who cannot always 

 remain in the better arranged dwellings of large towns, who 

 does not remember those never-to-be-forgotten Indian nights, 

 in which poets and lovers might have revelled, but when 

 wearied men who wanted sleep were plagued by blood-sucking 

 mosquitoes, crawling ants, and other insects, as if by actual 

 demon tormentors ? 



" Let me relate a single night's experience, which may serve 

 as a small contribution to the still unknown life-history of an 

 East-Indian insect. One night I was asleep at Batavia, think- 

 ing myself well protected by my mosquito-curtain, when I was 

 awakened by a noise. On waking up, I heard a buzzing as if 

 my room was turned into a great beehive. My night-light was 

 extinguished, probably by the insects which I heard in my 

 room having flown into it, but a little light from a gas-lamp 

 coming through the window showed me the outside of my 

 white mosquito-curtain covered with insects which seemed to 

 be some sort of wasps. Of course I had no wish to leave my 

 place of protection, but I soon saw that my mosquito-curtain 

 was not so well closed as I had thought, and that some of the 

 dreaded animals had already discovered the opening left by 

 my carelessness. The only safety now lay in a determined 

 resolution. I suddenly tore open the curtain, and threw my 

 pillows so that I could jump upon them and reach the door 



