Chai'. II. GUM COPAL. 83 



(Parra Jacana), a waterfowl having very long legs and 

 toes, which give it the appearance of walking on stilts, 

 as it stalks about, striding from one water-lily leaf to 

 another. I was surprised to find no coleopterous insects 

 on the aquatic plants. The situation appeared to be 

 as favourable for them as possibly could be. In England 

 such a richly-mantled pool would have yielded an abun- 

 dance of Donacise, Chrysomelse, Cassidse, and other 

 beetles ; here I could not find a single specimen. Neither 

 could I find any water-beetles ; the only exception was 

 a species of Gyrinus, about the same size as G. natator, 

 the little shining whirligig-beetle of Europe, which was 

 seen in small groups in shady corners, spinning round 

 on the surface of the water precisely as its congener does 

 in England. The absence of leaf-eating beetles on the 

 water plants, I afterwards found was general throughout 

 the country. A few are found on large grasses, and 

 Marantaceous plants in some places, but these are 

 generally concealed in the sharp folds of the leaves, 

 and are almost all very flat in shape.* I, therefore, 

 conclude that the aquatic plants in oj)en places in 

 this country are too much exposed to the sun's heat 

 to admit of the existence of leaf-eating beetles. 



Lany told me the Indian names, and enumerated the 

 properties of a number of the forest trees. One of 

 these was very interesting — viz., the Jutahi, which 

 yields the gum cojDal, called by the natives Jutahi-sica. 

 There are several species of it, as appears at once from 



* The species belong to the families Hispidse and Cassidiadte, and to 

 the genera Cephaloleia, Arescus, Himatidium, Homalispa. Carnivo- 

 rous beetles, also flat in shape, sometimes accompany them. 



g2 



