No. II— EIGHT MONTHS' ENTOMOLOGICAL COLLECTING IN THE 

 SEYCHELLES ISLANDS, 1908—1909. 



By Hugh Scott, M.A., F.L.S., Curator of Zoology in the 

 University of Cambridge. 



Read 5th May, 1910. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



The object of this resume is to give some account of nearly 8 months' entomological 

 work in the Seychelles Islands, during a period extending from July 12, 1908, till March 

 10, 1909, the whole of which was devoted to the collecting and investigation of the insects 

 and other terrestrial Arthropoda of the archipelago. 



It is not necessary here to enter into a general description of the islands, since 

 Professor Stanley Gardiner will publish such a description in this volume. It will be 

 enough to state that they are entirely of granitic formation and mountainous, rising to 

 heights of 2000 — and in places of nearly 3000 — feet. Erosion has taken place to an 

 enormous extent, carving out of the face of the land extremely steep slopes, narrow ridges, 

 and sharp peaks. One of the products of destruction of the granite is a hard red earth, 

 which forms a large part of the lower spurs and slopes of the mountains. The islands are 

 clothed from their coasts to their highest summits with verdure, consisting of the most 

 varying forms of vegetation. The lower slopes are covered with plantations of coconut 

 and other trees, and the cultivation of vanilla has been carried in places to heights of 

 1500 feet or more: but there still remain considerable expanses of the true native forest 

 in the higher parts of the mountains. It is a tropical rain-forest of extreme luxuriance 

 and beauty, and is highly interesting from the fact that it is composed to a very great 

 extent of plants belonging to genera and species which are peculiar to the islands. 



During by far the greater part of the time, the scene of my work lay in the forests, 

 at elevations generally over 1000 feet, and often over 2000 feet, above sea-level; since 

 it is in them that the great majority of the truly indigenous forms of insect-life are to 

 be found. Small though the land-area of the islands is — only about 150 square miles 

 altogether — there are well-marked distinctions between the entomological faunas of different 

 parts. That of the shady, moist mountain-jungles is very different from the fauna of the 

 more open and cultivated lands at lower levels. Not only so, but even within the limits 

 of the jungles, differences can be remarked between the insect-life of the highest dampest 

 peaks, and that of the lower forests. Very different, again, is the fauna of the coasts, 



