494 C. R. Osten-Sacken on facts concerning the 



New York was originally a Dutch colony, and PsUopus 

 jmllens may have been imported from Holland to New 

 York very earl5\ The peculiar mode of life of this 

 sijecies, quite different from its congeners, helps to 

 explain the otherwise improbable fact of the importation 

 by ship of a Psilojms. 



Ordinary Psilojnis run on leaves of plants, usually far 

 from human dwellings. On the contrary, P. iiallcns 

 I have always found in and about houses ; I even took 

 specimens on the walls of a foreign Consulate in one of 

 the busiest quarters of the city of New York (Bowling 

 Green). Other specimens were found by me on the out- 

 side walls of houses in Newport, Rhode Island and Sag 

 Harbour, Long Island — that is, always not far from the 

 sea-shore. Thus we are justified in supposing that P. 

 liallens, in frequenting ships'-cabins, has been able to 

 withstand the long voyage across the Atlantic. Still the 

 wanderings of this species and its partiality for sea-ports 

 are very remarkable, and it would be worth while to 

 investigate the perhaps peculiar conditions of its meta- 

 morphosis. 



4. — The Importation of Gnats (Culex) into the 

 Sandwich Islands. 



The following case may be typical of the mode of 

 importation of gnats across the ocean: — About 1828 — 30 

 an old ship from Mazaltan, Mexico, was abandoned on 

 the coast of one of the Sandwich Islands. Larvae of 

 Culex were probably imported in the water-tanks upon 

 it. The natives soon became aware of the appearance 

 round that spot of a — to them unknown — blood-sucking 

 insect ; it so far excited their curiosity that they used to 

 congregate in the evening in order to enjoy the novelty. 

 Since then the species spread in different localities, and 

 in some cases became a nuisance. 



This was related to me by Mr. T. R. Peale, the well- 

 known American entomologist and artist, who visited 

 the Sandwich Islands a few years later with the United 

 States Exploring Expedition, under command of Capt. 

 C. Wilkes (1838 — 40). A distinguished American, who 

 spent many years on the islands and whose acquaintance 

 I made in Washington, confirmed the story to me, and 

 told me that he remembered positively that there were 

 no mosquitoes on the islands about 1823. 



