EIGHT MONTHS' COLLECTING IN THE SEYCHELLES ISLANDS, 1908—1909 23 



with persistence and often by peculiar methods : when found they are for the most part 

 small or minute, and obscure in appearance. As soon, however, as the nature of their 

 hiding-places and the necessary particular methods of search have been discovered, there 

 is revealed a number of individuals and a wealth of forms which seem quite out of 

 proportion to the small size of the islands. 



On August 21 I moved to a second hut, at a place known as " la Mare aux Cochons," 

 where I remained till September 29. This very beautiful locality proved to be excellent 

 in every way for insect-collecting. Towards the western end of the western and highest 

 range, at an elevation of 1000 feet or more, is a gap in the mountain-ridge. It has a level 

 marshy floor, about 500 yards long by 250 yards wide, which is the " plateau " of the 

 Mare aux Cochons. At either end of the gap a stream flows down the steep slope of the 

 range towards the sea, while on either side the mountains rise abruptly to the highest 

 parts of the ridge. The level floor is covered with a very dense vegetation about 4 feet 

 high, consisting of ferns and bushes, among which latter the bush-groundsel (Senecio 

 seychellensis Baker) and the pink-flowered Melastoma hold a prominent place. There are 

 rush-grown pools in places : round the edge of the plateau is an earth-track, bordered 

 by a vegetation of tall grasses, bushes, and low trees, the last often sprawled over by 

 a white-flowered bindweed, a species of Ipomcea. A few coconut palms are planted at 

 intervals among the wild vegetation of the plateau, which is almost at the upper limit 

 of their cultivation. On one side, dense native forest clothes the mountains down to the 

 edge of the plateau. 



This plateau was extremely rich in insect-life. By sweeping the low thick vegetation 

 with a strong net, very numerous minute parasitic Hymenoptera, Homoptera, and Diptera 

 were obtained, as well as certain small Coleoptera. Small black fossorial Hymenoptera 

 were abundant on the paths, incessantly taking short low flights, settling and running 

 swiftly to and fro on the earth. I caused a narrow track to be cut across the plateau 

 through the thickest of the vegetation, and thus discovered several species of Micro- 

 lepidoptera, which appear to be especially characteristic of such localities, low down among 

 the stalks of the dense fern-growth. Several species of Seychelles butterflies frequented 

 this place : the fritillary Atella phdiherti Joan, often settling on the flowers of a low tree ; 

 small Lycsenids (Zizera lysimon Hb.) flying low over the growth of low weeds at the 

 edges of the paths ; and the handsome black and white Euplcea mitra often to be seen 

 in copses of low trees at the plateau edge. A Hesperiid (Eagris sabadius Gray) dashes 

 swiftly and erratically round the tops of tall bushes and low trees, settling (but rarely) 

 with wide-expanded wings on the broad surfaces of big leaves. Melanitis lecla L. was 

 found in shady places at the edge of the forest, as it is also in many other localities in the 

 Seychelles, in the lower parts of the mountain-forests. This last species was extremely 

 hard to secure, as it settles continually on the ground among brown dead leaves, where 

 it is very difficult to see, owing to its coloration ; and it almost always starts up and Hies 

 off before one can come within reach. 



My work in the forest above the plateau was representative of many of the kinds 

 of collecting employed in the Seychelles forests. Therefore it is well to attempt some 

 account of it, assuming that one is passing through the various types of jungle from the 



