the Fauna of Biomeliacere. 427 



Trinidad I was informed that many Culicid larvre are some- 

 times found in the water that collects in the strange inflo- 

 rescences of HeliconicE (wild Musacese) ; and in the Sandwich 

 Islands Dr. Perkins found that nymphs of some dragonflies 

 exist and complete their development in the water accumu- 

 lated in the leaves of lilies growing on dry land *. 



Therefore, during a short visit to Trinidad and Dominica 

 in March of this year, I determined to try to see something 

 of the bromeliad fauna. I was only able to examine Erome- 

 liaceae for this purpose on three occasions, in a single locality 

 in Trinidad and in two localities in Dominica. A brief 

 account of these investigations will be given, followed by 

 descriptions of four new species of bromeliadicolous insects. 



I. Trinidad. — The locality was the actual summit of the 

 highest mountain in the island. El Tucuche, 3100 feet^ in 

 the northern range of hills. My visit was made on March 

 20th, in company with Mr. F. W. Urieli, Government Ento- 

 mologist, and Mr. W. G. Freeman, Assistant Director of 

 Agriculture, to both of whom I am greatly indebted for 

 ranch kindness and help. Having left Port of Spain at 

 daybreak and travelled by rail to St. Joseph, formerly the 

 capital, we then drove northwards into the mountains up 

 the Maracas valley as far as the road is passable for vehicles. 

 We then climbed the steep side of the valley-head through 

 cacao-plantations till we arrived at a gap or saddle between 

 two peaks high in the hills. Pushing our way through a 

 dense bed of Heliconia, the broad banana-like leaves of 

 which reached some way over our heads, we crossed the gap 

 and emerged on to the track leading to the mountain-top. 

 From this point we followed the track to the summit, 

 mounting gradually for about 4 miles through a dense 

 tropical forest of extreme beaut3^ In the higher part espe- 

 cially was an indescribable luxuriance of vegetation, very 

 njticeable being many graceful palms of several kinds 

 (^Euterpe, Bactris, Geonoma, &c.), an extraordinary wealth 

 of ferns, Lycopodiaccfe, climbing and epiphytic Aroids, lianes, 

 and epiphytic Bromeliaceae often with gaudily-coloured 

 inflorescences, not to mention the many kinds of Dicotyle- 

 donous trees. Immediately below the summit the forest 

 becomes somewhat stunted, and trunks and branches of trees 

 wear a shaggy clothing of thick moss. At the actual summit 

 a small area is cleared and a little wooden camping-house 

 has been built. On the Avay through the forest we had been 



* See Sharp. ' Cambridge Natural History,' vol. v. pp. 425-G. 



29* 



