222 



FAUNA OF THE MALAY ISLANDS AND PHILIPPINES 



alone fights when protection of the eggs is necessary. The eggs, which are of 

 large size and of a translucent golden yellow or amber colour, are spread out when 

 first laid like a sheet flush with the surface of the water between tufts of rushes 

 which serve in some degree to protect them from the direct rays of the sun. 

 During the breeding season lula cannot be tempted to take a bait of any kind, but 

 are caught by the Singhalese in a trap known as a kuda. This is a small, wide- 

 meshed bucket of deep and conical form, about 20 inches long, terminating blindly 

 at the narrow end, and opening like a funnel at the opposite extremity, while 

 beyond this it is just wide enough to receive the body of the fish, which when inside 

 becomes jammed. The kuda is set in one of the ways to the nest, when the capture 



STICK INSECT (CYPHOCRANIA GIGAS). 



of one or both fish is almost certain. 

 The floating eggs of the lula owe 

 their buoyancy to the presence in 

 each of a globule of oil, which 

 occupies the greater part of the 

 whole structure, and is immersed 

 in the golden yellow yolk. As the 

 eggs lie immediately below the 

 surface and are exposed to the full 

 effects of the influence of the sun's rays, development proceeds with astonishing 

 rapidity, hatching taking place within three days, if not within twenty-four hours, 

 of the time when the eggs are deposited. 



Among the insects of the Malay Islands, the Atlas moth (Attacus 

 atlas) is noteworthy on account of its size, the wing-spread being 

 almost a foot. Many other insects of the area, although by no means all, are 

 likewise very large, and also remarkable for their gorgeous colours. Others, 

 again, as the stick-insects, or Phasmida?, attract attention on account of their 

 strange forms. These large insects, which are slow-moving vegetable-feeders, are 

 almost entirely confined to the tropics; one of the largest Malay Island forms, 

 Cyphocrania gigas, presenting, like others of its kind, a striking resemblance to a 

 dry twig. The leaf-insects (Phy Ilium), another genus of the same family, are 



Insects. 



