0* JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



insects. One thing however is well known about them, and that 

 is they are a favourite article in the diet of the coral snakes.* 

 The specimen was bagged as a matter of course, for no doubt he 

 would be welcomed, only too warmly, by the Elaps in the glass 

 box at home. These logs appeared to be rather the reverse of 

 rich in insect life, however, for with the exception of one or two 

 cockroaches — has it ever occurred to a member of the Club what 

 a number of species there are in this Island ? — and one or two 

 spirally shaped snailsf there was little else. But stricter search 

 revealed the horny elytra of a beetle, which probably came to an 

 untimely end, also one or two of the ants locally known as 

 tick-tacksj from the snapping noise they make with their jaws. 

 My companion wished to obtain some males and females of this 

 species and so we persevered and presently, turning over another 

 fragment of the trunk, we came upon the whole nest. At 

 the risk of many a bite we picked up the winged individuals — 

 wings are one of the distinguishing features of the males 

 and females — the workers or neuters being destitute of 

 these appendages. Although we looked carefully we were 

 not able to find the Queen-ant needed to complete the series 

 in my companion's collection. While taking the ants we noticed 

 a peculiar habit in them, which we have not hitherto seen 

 recorded — when threatened with a stick, or the point of a cutlass 

 they have a trick of jumping backwards with a sharp jerky 

 movement. A little further on we found, on the under side of a 

 piece of bamboo, a land planaria, a slug-like-looking animal, which 

 preys on land snails and whose methods of dealing with these 

 unfortunate molusks has been so ably described by Dr. von 

 Kennel in his Biological and Faunistic notes on Trinidad. The 

 extract was reprinted in a recent number of the Journal. But 

 we had stayed long enough on the hill-side and we felt we must 

 get on to Fonds Amandes to begin our excursion in real earnest , 

 so we quickly regained the road and hurrying past the little 

 hamlet and over the tiny stream crossing the road, we stopped to 

 look for a moment at the shoals of small fish§ swimming merrily 

 in the still waters on either side of our path ; and tried to find 

 an eel, but without, success, though they are oftentimes to be 

 seen there. A little further on we noted one of those gorgeous 

 beetles|| with green, gold and black elytra, but he luckily escaped 



*Elaps lemniscatus and E. riisei. 



fStenogyra octona Chenm. Mr. Lechmere Guppy, to whom I am in- 

 debted for this determination, informs me this is the most widely distributed 

 shell in the world. 



JOdontomachus haematodes. 



gRivulus miropus. 



|) A Coptocycla. 



