128 Dodd, A Naturalist in New Guinea. [v ? C xxxv 



We tarried three days at Moresby awaiting an opportunity 

 to get away. From our home in Rwanda we had brought 

 some thirty pupae of our giant moth, Coscinocera Hercules, so 

 in our room these were hung on a cord ; one had emerged and 

 perished on the way, and nearly all the others came out during 

 the three nights in port. The news soon spread that two people 

 were hatching out some big moths, so we had some curious 

 or interested callers. Then we began to hear of a great moth 

 a gentleman had captured on the Astrolabe, various measure- 

 ments — from twelve to fourteen inches — being given ; finally 

 the gentleman himself came in, and we learnt that the moth 

 was twelve inches in expanse, but, having no means of killing 

 or preserving it, he allowed it to escape. Still another gigantic 

 creature was mentioned, this being from sixteen to twenty-four 

 inches across, the owner requiring a suit-case to accommodate 

 it ! But accounts differed as to the insect itself— a moth with 

 one, a beetle with another. Finally, we traced this to a fine 

 Batocera wallacei given at Samarai to Mr. H. P. Schrader, a 

 Sydney gentleman with a love for natural history, and with 

 whom I had corresponded a little ; but his beetle we afterwards 

 ascertained was not equal to one of ours of the same species, 

 which was 17J inches across the antennae before dry. How- 

 ever, from a more reliable source, I have been informed of a 

 larger moth than C. her cities. Mr. Schrader, accompanied by 

 his wife, had been to the Astrolabe a year earlier, and I heard 

 of him often. He had not been impressed with the district, 

 so had gone to Woodlark Island, where he remained some weeks, 

 and, though he obtained some interesting beetles, moths, and 

 butterflies, he considered the results of his visit disappointing. 

 When in Sydney several months ago I saw his collection, which 

 is nicely kept, and noticed two handsome Cossidae from Wood- 

 lark. We obtained one from a hill scrub — a pretty, pearly- 

 white insect with metallic greenish and bronzy spots. 



To get to the range we travelled in a slow and heavy motor 

 lorry, but, owing to the muddy condition of the road, we got 

 no further than thirteen miles the first day, camping at a hut, 

 the owner of which was working a copper lode near by. Here 

 for the first time we heard the " Tap-tap-tap " of the drums 

 of the natives, a number working at the mine being camped 

 hereabout ; and here we were kept awake by the mosquitoes, 

 their threnodies around our cheese-cloth nets lasting far into 

 the night. In the morning a few minutes' walk across the 

 road brought us to the banks of the Laloki River, a narrow, 

 deep, and fairly rapid stream here, which we had to cross later 

 close to the range. Better trees and longer grass grew here, 

 but still E. platyphylla was plentiful. The only butterflies 

 yet seen were a slaty Tenaris and two species of Danaidae, one 

 being very dark brown, almost black. 



