2o6 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



its middle, the abdomen chiefly black; each wing is one and 

 one-quarter inch in length, slightly yellowish and densely 

 veined. 



West of Juan Viiias the next station on the railroad was at 

 Quebrada Honda, a side ravine emptying into the Reventa- 

 z6n valley on the north. At the time of our first visit here, 

 August I, 1909, there were only a few native huts and one 

 more pretentious house, the Hacienda Maria. That morn- 

 ing was cloudy and threatening. We took the road which 

 led upstream. The hillsides were planted with yuca (mani- 

 hot), maize, squashes, beets, onions or garlic, the neat rows 

 of which often occupied such steep slopes that we wondered 

 how plants and soil retained their positions when it rained 

 hard — as it often did. The land was formerly forest-clad 

 and it still was so at the top of the hills. Here and there 

 some tiny streams descended to swell the volume of the 

 little Rio Quebrada Honda. The valley has some historic 

 interest as being the position occupied by the Spanish gov- 

 ernor Juan Lopez de la Flor in 1665 to resist the attack of 

 French and English pirates and buccaneers under Mansfield 

 and Morgan, who, landing at El Portete, near the site of 

 Limon, advanced as far as Turrialba but retreated on learn- 

 ing of the resoluteness of the governor. Again in 168 1, 

 Governor Saenz Vazquez intrenched troops at Quebrada 

 Honda to await the pirates who had disembarked at Ma- 

 tina with the intention of attacking Cartago, but who did 

 not carry out their plans. 



At the little streams we found a few small leeches {Semis- 

 colex glaber) and planarians, a small fresh-water crab with a 

 carapace one inch across {Pseudothelphusia richmondi?) and 

 some dragonflies. Five slender columns of army ants {Eci- 

 ton hamatum) were crossing the road, but the cloudiness was 

 not favorable to the appearance of many insects. 



When, later, the sun shone and more insects were on the 



