286 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



self was colored a bright red Inside and the fruits hung in 

 large clusters, it was very conspicuous. The white pulp 

 was sweet, with a curious flavor suggesting both turpentine 

 and peppermint, and the leaf-cutting ants were busily cut- 

 ting it up and carrying it away to their nests. Nearby was 

 a fair-sized tree, which Sr. Tonduz later identified, from 

 some pods we gathered, as a "Lorito" {Pithecolobium sp.). 

 The fruit was a twisted legume four to five inches long with 

 thick, fleshy, bright scarlet walls and containing a few fully 

 uncovered shiny black seeds each half an inch long. The 

 red and black of the fruit made a marked contrast with the 

 shining green leaves. On the edge of the potrero and also 

 in the banana fields we found a large purplish lubber grass- 

 hopper {Tceniopoda ce7iturio) with bright red under-wings. 



We often hunted for dragonfly larvae between the bases of 

 bromeliad leaves. There was a great variety of creatures 

 living there and we found earthworms {Dichogaster hilaris^, 

 Andiodrilus biolleyi), pill-bugs (Isopods) daddy-longlegs 

 (Phalangids — Cynorta biguttata* and longispina), pseudo- 

 scorpions {Chelanops uniformis^) , millipedes {Aphelidesmus 

 calverti), earwigs {Sparatta calverti), roaches {Anaplecta mexi- 

 cana), several species of beetle larvae, as well as an adult 

 beetle {Phcsnonotum sp.), caterpillars, larvae of three species 

 of mosquitoes and of one other dipterous insect. Those 

 whose names are marked with an asterisk we found also in 

 bromeliads at Juan Vinas at an altitude at least 1500 feet 

 higher. 



But the most astonishing creatures, and the most exciting, 

 were two snakes, coiled up into a very small space, each in 

 his own leaf. The bromeliad containing them was a single 

 stock growing on a small tree at a height of about five feet 

 from the ground. The first snake we dislodged with a 

 stick, disabled it and carrying it as far as the house measured 

 its length as twenty-five Inches. The Costa RIcan gar- 



