A GOLD MINE IN THE WILDERNESS. 211 



The hawk-moths that came to our table were all different, 

 all beautiful; one a study in pale yellow; another variegated 

 green with blended purples and red (Argeus labruscae) on 

 the hinder wings. This one too bore on its eyes the long shaft 

 of a pollen stalk from some night flowering orchid. 



Then a moth would come, recalling somewhat the Pro- 

 methea and Polyphemus of our childhood's collecting, but 

 with great transparent mirrors in the centre of the wings 

 (Attacus [Hesperia] erycina); next, two as different as possible 

 but which we learned later were sexes of the same species 

 (Dirphia tarquinia) the female, large, plain brown with a 

 forked streak of light across the fore-wings: her mate a full 

 third smaller with rosy hind-wings and fore-wings frosted 

 white, save for two conspicuous circles at the fork of his white 

 lightning. 



On the third evening there were fewer moths, but many 

 more beetles and grasshopper-like insects. Green was the 

 predominating color among the moths this evening from 

 palest yellow-green to darkest bottle-green. In some the 

 green had a border sending ray-like lines across all four wings. 

 Yellow and white were the colors almost always present in 

 combination with tin- green, the yellow being usually con- 

 fined to the hinder wings. A stain of gold was sometimes 

 laid over the green, and in one beauty the green seemed to 

 have been spattered at hazard over a milky-white surface. 

 This proved to be a female of a species known only from a 

 single male (Racheolopha niirlacta), the female proving to 

 be twice as large as her mate. 



Instead of burying the insects in enve'opes or mounting 

 them in the orthodox way with the fore-wings raised unnatu- 

 rally until the hind edge is at right angles to the body, we 

 merely supported the wings, and allowed them to dry in the 

 natural position. By doing this we usually lost sight of part 

 of the hinder wing, but we gained the true relation of the 



