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XXII. Notes on a Collection of Insects sent hy Mr. Ansell 

 from South- West Africa. By J. W. Dunning, 

 M.A., Sec. Ent. Soc. 



From 1855-60 Mr. Henry Ansell was one of our members, 

 but from the latter date no tidings of him reached the So- 

 ciety, until the receipt of a letter, dated " Kinsembo, S. W. 

 C. Africa, 23rd Februaiy, 1870," which accompanied the 

 insects captured in that locality, to which these notes relate. 



The collection was brought to this country by Mr. J. J. 

 Monteiro, of Ambriz, whose contributions to the know- 

 ledge of Angolan birds are familiar to ornithologists (see 

 The Ibis for 1862, and Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1865 and 

 1869) ; and was exhibited at the June Meeting of the 

 Society (see Proc. Ent. Soc. 1870, p. xxiv.) . 



Kinsembo, or Kisembo, is only a phonetic spelling of 

 the Portuguese Qaizembo, or Quicembo. There is a 

 place of that name in Benguela, but the Kinsembo of 

 Mr. Ansell is a small spot of rising importance on the 

 coast of Congo, a few miles to the north of the town of 

 Ambriz, about 6 4° south of the equator. It will be found 

 in the Map of Angola, published at Lisbon, in 1864, under 

 the title '' Angola, Mappa coordenada pelo Visconde de 

 Sa de Bandeira e por Fernando da Costa Leal ;" and the 

 West African mail-packets now regularly call at Kinsembo. 



The Angolan Coast (including Congo, Angola proper, 

 and Benguela) is for the most part a level tract, bounded 

 westward by the sea, and eastward by a range of hills 

 running parallel to the coast. This littoral region, with 

 its low-lying grounds, lakes, and forests, is in many parts 

 unhealthy ; but, in addition to the trade in gum copal, 

 and teeth of the elephant and hippopotamus, the mineral 

 wealth of the mountains is attracting the attention of 

 Europeans. The variety and peculiarity of the vegetable 

 productions have long been known, and the recent ap- 

 pearance of the " Sertum Angolense " of Dr. Welwitsch 

 (Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxvii.) has renewed the interest 

 felt by botanists in this portion of the African Cpntinent ; 

 in the introductory observations to that paper, the 

 general features of the country will be found described. 



In his essay " On the Geographical Relations of the 

 chief Coleopterous Faunae," (to the theory of which, I 

 believe, Coleopterists generally are scarcely prepared to 

 assent, whilst some at least of the arguments and sta- 

 tistics adduced seem to invite a reply from students of 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1870. — -PART IV. (DECEMBER.) 



