BARBADOS-ANTIGUA EXPEDITION 211 
conditions prevail, particularly on the hills in the vicinity of 
English Harbor. These hills are largely of volcanic origin and 
the soil is very thin, although it is able to support many harsh 
and spiny plants. Such situations, however, afforded little of 
variety or abundance in the way of insect life. 
In walking through the wooded districts about Antigua the 
newcomer is at first struck with the great number of what ap- 
pear to be climbing vines on the trees. Upon closer examination 
one finds that these ‘‘vines’’ are really the covered galleries 
through which the termites or white ants travel from place to 
place. The tunnels are everywhere, winding about over the 
trunks and branches of the trees and usually ending in a nest of 
some size either on the ground or in the trees themselves. The 
white ants are usually sightless and being averse to the light 
construct these tunnels when it becomes necessary to cross an 
open surface. The nests and tunnels are made of pellets of 
chewed wood fastened together with the sticky saliva secreted 
by the insects. 
A most interesting and, to the writer, unusual place in which 
to find insects was in the great epiphytes locally known as ‘‘ wild 
pineapples,’’ growing sometimes in great numbers on the 
manchineal and other trees in the wooded districts. Upon care- 
fully removing one of these ‘‘pines’’ from the limb of the tree 
to which it is ordinarily loosely attached, and turning it upside 
down, the collector is usually well repaid. Spiders, scorpions, 
beetles and cockroaches are sure to be found. The large leaves 
of this plant form a receptable for water and it is not an un- 
common thing to find adult mosquitoes and their larve in such 
situations. 
Among the commonest insects on Antigua are the cotton 
stainers (Dysdercus spp.) of which two or three forms occur on 
the island. These insects are true bugs, usually reddish in color 
with black and sometimes also with white markings. Adults 
and nymphs in all stages were found in great numbers during 
July. These bugs have sucking mouth-parts and by preference 
feed on the bolls, seeds, leaves, and tender shoots of the cotton 
plants. When cotton is lacking the bugs will feed on other re- 
lated plants. In addition to lessening the vitality of the plant 
by extracting the juices, cotton stainers have been found to 
