ON THE INSECTS FKOM NEW BRITAIN. 

 By D. sharp, M.A., MB., F.R.S. 



With Plate XXXV. 



The insects obtained by Dr Willey in Xew Britain and Lifu have ah-eady been 

 the subject of a paper in the first part of these " Results'." The specimens of 

 hexapodous Insects brought back by Dr Willey are fairly numerous. Except in Coleo- 

 ptera and Orthoptera they are all from New Britain. The number of species in com- 

 parison with the number of the specimens is very large, so that the collection is not 

 of a kind that it is desirable to work out in complete detail. They show that New 

 Britain is rich in insects, for unless this were the case it is impossible that Dr Willey 

 should have obtained so many species as he did ; entomological research having been 

 only subordinate to some other objects of his expedition ; besides which it must be 

 recollected that his researches were confined to one or two localities on the coast. 



Very little work has at present been published on the Entomology of New Britain. 

 And even in the case of New Guinea — the larger island of which New Britain is so 

 near a neighbour — the fauna has only been very imperfectly ascertained. In these notes 

 I propose only to touch on certain species that can be advantageously dealt with. 



As no allusion is subsequently made in this paper to certain of the Orders of 

 Hexapoda I may here mention that the Neuroptera are represented by very few 

 specimens, and that the Hemiptera have been entrusted to Jlr G. W. Kirkaldy for 

 examination. The latter are extensive in comparison with the other Orders, and it is not 

 probable that Mr Kirkaldy's account of them will be ready in time to be included 

 in these " Results." Lepidoptera are represented in the collection by only a few larvae 

 and pupae^. 



' " Account of the Phasmidae, with notes on the Eggs," pp. 75 — 94, Plates VIII. and IX. Dr M. v. Brunn 

 has since published (Mt. Mus. Hamburg, xv., 1898, p. 4) a note on the egg referred to on p. 89 and PI. IX. 

 f. 39 as that of a Ci/phocraiiia without name, and for which the name of C. lianiUchi was suggested. 

 According to Dr v. liruun, tliis insect is really the Cyphucraiiiii herculeana of Charpentier, Westwood having 

 been wrong in treatin;; Charpentier's species as a synonjm of C. goliath. Herr Brunner v. Wattenw^l, in 

 his expected monograph of Phasmidae, will separate these two species as a genus with the name Euri/ciiema 

 Serv. : the name of this Phasmid will therefore be Eunjcnemu herculeana Cliarp. 



- An account of the butterflies of New Britain has recently been published by Herr C. Bibbe in Deultche 

 ent. ZeiUchr. Lep., 189M, pp. 3.0—133. 



w. IV. 52 



