26 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



parts of the Seychelles as well. Dead timber of the capucin tree is very abundant in the 

 Seychelles forests. Though this tree lives and flourishes on the tops of the mountains, 

 yet at lower levels very many capucins have been killed in some way, and their great 

 barkless bleached skeletons are a most conspicuous feature of the jungles. However, 

 I never found that this form of dead wood much repayed investigation. It is excessively 

 hard, and appears to be very seldom attacked by boring larvae, with the exception of 

 those of the ubiquitous Callirhiphis (Rhipiceridse), which reduce parts of it to powder. 

 The cylindrical, hard, polished brown larvae of this beetle abound in all kinds of dead 

 timber in all localities ; in the cultivated low country, where they are met with in the 

 dead stems of the coconut, and at all elevations up to the mountain-tops. The case is 

 different when the dead capucin-wood retains its bark : in a number of small fallen 

 branches gathered from the highest forests (such as the summit described above), were 

 found many small Longicorn larvae, from which I bred two kinds of beetles apparently 

 quite confined to the highest and dampest forest-zone. Other kinds of softer timber also 

 often contain insects. Numbers of small Coleoptera and Hemiptera (Aradidse) are found 

 under the bark of various sorts of dead trees, at a certain stage in their decay. Dead 

 " bois rouge" (Wormia ferruginea) especially is worth investigating : its bark often comes 

 cleanly away from the wood, leaving a smooth damp surface abounding with small bark- 

 dwelling insects. The stems of the endemic palms in an advanced state of decay become 

 hollow, and are then found to be tenanted by cockroaches, by the larvae of certain 

 Lamellicornia, and by beetles (Figulus, etc.). 



Mention must also be made of the method of collecting by beating branches, etc. 

 over a beating-umbrella. This is not often easy in the tropical forest, as the leaves 

 and branches are usually out of reach far overhead. But in certain circumstances many 

 species may be obtained in this manner, some of which are not obtained otherwise. If 

 the dead but still hanging leaves of palms (and other trees) are beaten, or the fallen 

 leaves picked up and shaken hard over an umbrella, numerous insects are often secured, 

 Thysanura (Machilidae), Blattidae and Coleoptera (Curculionidae, Anthribidse, Anobiidse, 

 etc.). A quantity of dead vegetable matter, often containing various Coleoptera, can 

 frequently be shaken from big epiphytic ferns (Aspleniwm nidus). Pieces of secondary 

 forest are often good places to visit with a beating-stick and umbrella, since the trees are 

 not tall and the foliage is therefore easily accessible. In such situations I beat many 

 interesting specimens from the green leaves, and by shaking the abundant dry fallen 

 Stevensonia leaves obtained numerous insects and Arachnida (Chernetidia, etc.). 

 Interesting forms were sometimes found by beating the thatch of houses. The hut at 

 the Mare aux Cochons (Silhouette) was roofed with a thick thatch of fresh-cut palm- 

 leaves, and by beating the edge of it I obtained large numbers of several small and 

 minute species, Psocidai, Coleoptera and Hemiptera. 



Night collecting in Silhouette during this season of the south-east wind gave very 

 little result. At both camping places in the mountains, there were a few species of 

 Microlepidoptera, which always came to the lamp in the hut: two kinds of beetles 

 (Scolytidae, Platypus sp., and another) also constantly appeared, possibly out of the 

 split palm-laths of which the walls were made. Winged ants and a kind of fig-insect 



