Amateur Insect Collecting in British Guiana. 
By H. C. Swan. 
HE whole continent of South America, and Bri- 
tish Guiana especially, from an entomologist’s 
, point of view, is noted for the number and 
diversity of beautiful and curious inseéts. Interseéted 
by magnificent rivers flowing through long open savan- 
nahs, thick bush, and, in the far interior, mountainous 
distriéts, this colony offers the colleétor such opportuni- 
ties as probably never occur in any other country. 
Even close to town, nay, in the very streets of George- 
town and its suburbs, many rare beetles and butterflies 
are found, while at night round the lamps and attraéted 
by the glare always flit numbers of moths. In the 
public gardens, magnificently coloured butterflies may he 
seen flying by day, and it is not saying too much to state 
that a colleétor could procure a very fair representative 
colleétion of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera within a radius 
of about 10 miles from the city of Georgetown. 
Of the native Coleoptera we have the cocoanut beetle 
which almost everyone knows; it may be found at the 
roots of old cocoanut trees and other old palms and 
rotten trees of almost any sort, In an old Eeta palm in 
the South Canal of the Polder on the West Coast, we 
found, on cutting it down, a perfeét nest of them, with 
some small Tarantula spiders. The top of the tree had 
been once a nesting place for parrots. The cocoanut 
beetle is a great pest to growers, as they do a great deal 
of damage by boring. It is said they were used in the 
