WILD BEES. EDIBLE GRUB. 103 



Wild bees are the most valuable insects this 

 island possesses. The natives keep no hives, 

 but collect vast quantities of honey and wax 

 from the hollow trees in the jungle. Some 

 winged insects, which I found enclosed in the 

 fruit of a wild fig-tree, bore a very close re- 

 semblance, both in appearance and habitat, to 

 the Cynips Pscenes, (or Cynips ficus caric&J 

 of the Mediterranean islands. Large locusts, 

 brilliantly coloured, ants, domestic flies, and 

 many kinds of cockroach, were common ; but 

 strange, though agreeable, to say, no mosquitoes 

 made their appearance. Our wooding party 

 brought me the larva of a gigantic beetle 

 which had been found in the trunk of a tree. 

 It was of that kind usually eaten by the Malays, 

 and which, when preserved in sugar, is also 

 esteemed a delicacy by the Chinese. Its body 

 is soft, of a delicate whiteness, and, in addition 

 to the normal members, has on the back a 

 series of false feet, similar to those that obtain 

 in the Cerambyx family of beetles. Lepidoptera, 

 chiefly gaudy butterflies, were numerous and ac- 

 cessible ; and, on the whole, it appeared that a 

 large and valuable entomological collection might 

 be made on this spot. 



Vegetation does not here assume that lux- 

 uriant character which we had been accustomed 



