EIGHT MONTHS' COLLECTING IN THE SEYCHELLES ISLANDS, 1908—1909 25 



the blades of the leaves the following were found : — earthworms ; leeches ; snails ; 

 woodlice ; Lepidopterous larva? ; rat-tailed Dipterous larvEe (1 Eris talis sp.) ; Coleopterous 

 larvse ; Dytiscid beetles (Copelatus sp., a form only found in the moisture between 

 Pandanus leaves) ; a peculiar very flattened cockroach, a form apparently only inhabiting 

 Paudanus ; certain minute Coleoptera between the leaf-bases ; lastly, small weevils and 

 a species of scaly- winged Psocid, higher up on the blades of the leaves. 



When an elevation of 1500 feet is reached, one enters the dampest type of forest, 

 where undergrowth is abundant in places. Thick moisture-soaked beds of ferns, when 

 swept with a net, are found to contain numbers of small stick-insects (Phasmidae) and 

 various Hemiptera peculiar to such situations. One or two kinds of Homoptera appear 

 to have a special predilection for the bush-groundsel (Senecio seychellensis Baker), the 

 foliage of which they sometimes inhabit in such numbers, that when the bush is shaken, 

 the surrounding air is filled with a little cloud of flying and leaping insects*. Diptera are 

 present, of kinds never seen at lower levels. For the last few hundred feet before the 

 summit is reached, the slope is extremely steep. I often found such slopes to be a help 

 in collecting in the high forests : because, owing to the exceedingly sharp angle of the 

 surface of the ground, one is enabled to survey and reach the upper surface of the foliage, 

 and the tops of small palms and other trees which are rooted some feet below. Various 

 curious forms of Hemiptera, parasitic Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera are then seen, sitting 

 exposed to the light on the top of the green roof of foliage, especially on the leaves of the 

 small Roscheria palms so abundant in such places. Especially characteristic are certain 

 small elongated weevils, which appear as little dark linear objects with their long axes 

 parallel to the longitudinal ridges and crinkles of the palm-leaves. Thus I was occasionally 

 able to obviate to some extent that difficulty so often experienced in tropical forests, 

 namely, that so many of the living creatures are out of reach in the tree-tops overhead. 



The actual summit of this highest peak of Silhouette is covered with capucin trees 

 (Northea seychellarum), whose trunks and branches bear epiphytic ferns and are hidden 

 by a shaggy coat of moss, several inches thick. These highest peaks are very often hidden 

 in mist. Thus on the occasion of my first visit to this one, though the sunlight could be 

 seen blazing on the magnificent expanse of close-packed tree-tops below, yet the peak 

 itself was continually wrapped in cool cloud, its soil was sodden and its vegetation dripping. 

 Altogether it is not surprising to have found certain forms of insects only on the actual 

 summit of this mountain and in one or two precisely similar localities in Mahe. A small 

 black Hydrophilid beetle lives in the layers of moisture between the large, smooth, dead 

 capucin leaves, which were collected in little hollows on the ground. In the damp leaf- 

 mould, too, I found a form of Thysanura never seen elsewhere. It may be mentioned also 

 that there were many Campodea in this same humus, though they are found in many 

 places at lower levels. A species of Nepenthes grows in profusion on some of the highest 

 peaks, and the water in its pitchers swarms with Culicid larvae. 



Before ceasing to speak of these jungles, something may be said of the collecting 

 of Coleoptera, etc. from dead wood : this will refer not to Silhouette only but to other 



* Neither this plant nor the accompanying Homoptera are confined to the highest forest-zone ; hoth 

 are also found in the lower forest down to about 1000 feet. 



SECOND SERIES -ZOOLOGY, VOL. XIV. 4 



