TRANSACTIONS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 



THE PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



TO 



THE INDIAN OCEAN IN 1905 



UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF 



Mr J. STANLEY GARDINER 



Volume III. 



No. I.— DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPEDITION (CONCLUDED) WITH 



OBSERVATIONS FOR TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM AND SOME 



ACCOUNT OF BIRD AND DENNIS ISLANDS. 



By J. Stanley Gardiner, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.. Commander Boyle T. 



SOMERVILLE, R.N., AND J. C. F. FRYER, B.A. 



(Plates 1 and 2 and 3 Text-figures.) 

 Read 2nd December, 1909. 



A. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPEDITION. 

 By J. Stanley Gardiner, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. 



While engaged in 1906 and 1907 in working up the collections obtained by the 

 Expedition of 1905 in the Seychelles Archipelago, it became obvious that a further 

 expedition would be necessary to those islands, to trace with a proper degree of 

 accuracy their relationship to the Indian and African Continents as well as to the 

 great island of Madagascar. I was not an entomologist nor was Mr Forster Cooper, 

 my companion in 1905. The weather during our visit was dry until the last fortnight 

 of our stay in the Seychelles. We were engaged on marine and other work, yet in the 

 intervals of these occupations during a visit of seven weeks we obtained a few boxes of 

 insects. These exactly doubled the previously known Hymenopteran fauna of the islands 

 according to Mr P. Cameron's Report (vol. xii., pp. 69-86), while Mr W. L. Distant 

 (vol. xiii., pp. 29-47) found 23 species not previously recorded, six being referred to 

 new genera. It is true no new Dragonflies (see F. F. Laidlaw's Report, pp. 87-89) 

 nor Ants (Prof. A. Forel's Report, pp. 91-94) were obtained. Against these, Mr David 

 Sharp, who examined the beetles, found many apparently new forms, genera and species. 

 He considered it would be a waste of labour to examine them as they consisted of 

 odd forms from many different genera, the variation and identification of many of 

 which might be doubtful and would require revision as soon as fresh collections might 

 SECOND SERIES— ZOOLOGY, VOL. XIV. 1 



