EIGHT MONTHS' COLLECTING IN THE SEYCHELLES ISLANDS, 1908—1909 31 



then several feet above the ground. There cannot be much doubt that the creatures had 

 established themselves up on the trees while the latter were still growing. Individuals of 

 this Oligotoma had previously been found in another locality, near the summit of Morne 

 Blanc, but in a less remarkable situation, their web-tunnels being on the ground among 

 fallen leaves under a bush. One of the Oligotoma from the moss-patches, which showed 

 wing-rudiments, was placed with pieces of the bark and moss in a tightly-closed screw- 

 topped bottle, and left for some weeks, when the wings developed fully. 



From December 14 — 18 I was again absent from Mahe, on a short visit to Felicite" 

 island. On returning to Mahe, I went on December 21 as the guest of Mr H. P. 

 Thomasset to Cascade Estate, which was my headquarters till January 25, 1909. It is 

 hard to estimate how very much I am indebted to Mr Thomasset in every way, for his 

 constant kindness, and especially for the very large amount of help given by him in the 

 collecting of the insect-fauna. He worked with untiring energy, not only collecting all 

 kinds of insects in the field, but also at the more trying and much less pleasant task of 

 mounting and preparing great numbers of minute and delicate specimens. A large 

 proportion of the material amassed during this part of my stay in the Seychelles was 

 obtained by him. This statement refers especially to Diptera, on which order we largely 

 concentrated our attention, making a collection of considerable size, and pinning and 

 mounting almost all the specimens on the spot. 



Cascade lies over four miles south-east of Port Victoria. To quote the words of 

 Professor Stanley Gardiner*, " it is an amphitheatre opening from a gorge extending 

 up 600 feet from the sea and spreading out into a circlet of hills, each with an almost 

 perpendicular face, but each at some point throwing out an earth-covered buttress." On 

 the circlet of hills are expanses of most luxuriant endemic forest, while the earth-covered 

 spurs and the valleys between them are clothed with many kinds of wild and cultivated 

 vegetation. The locality was so rich in insects and the kinds of collecting so manifold, 

 that it is impossible to describe them in detail. Valuable material of the most varied 

 nature was obtained from the mountain-jungles. Abundance of small insects, parasitic 

 Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, etc. were got in the plantations, by sweeping and 

 beating in long grass and patches of mixed vegetation. On some occasions when the 

 foliage of coffee-bushes was shaken, several fresh forms of Microlepidoptera flew out and 

 specimens of them were captured. 



In one of the valleys between the earth-buttresses lay a swampy piece of ground, on 

 which much of a wide-ranging tropical plant, Jussicea sp. (Onagraceae) was growing. 

 By sweeping this marsh-vegetation numbers of certain Diptera and Hemiptera- 

 Heteroptera, characteristic of swampy places, were collected. In another direction were 

 some rocky and relatively dry pieces of land, covered — as such situations very often are in 

 the Seychelles — with a scrub composed of various endemic bushes and small trees such as 

 the "bois dur" (Plectronia bibj-acteata Baker), " bois doux " (Craterispermv/m microdot 

 Baker), and " cafe marrun " (Ramlia sp., and Erijth ro.njlon laiirifolium Lam.). Certain 

 kinds of insects are especially numerous among vegetation of this sort, even though they 



* J. Stanley Gardiner, "The Seychelles Archipelago"; from the Gr,„jr<tplil-<tl Journal for February 

 1907, p. 160: see this and the succeeding pages for a description of the Cascade jungle. 



