Illingworth — Early references to Hawaiian entomology 9 



The insects we noticed here, though not at any of the other Polynesian Islands 

 we visited, were large tarantula spiders, {Lycosa Sp.) the millipede or wood-louse, 

 {Oniscus asellus) and centipedes, eight or ten inches long, their colour brown- 

 yellow, the sides and abdomen blue. The luminous centipede {Scolopendra elcc- 

 trica) is also found in the houses at Honoruru, emitting its characteristic phosphor- 

 escent light, and leaving behind it a trail of luminous matter. 



In a footnote Bennet gives this additional information : 



Ships are, doubtless, the active, though involuntary agents in disseminating in- 

 sects over remote regions of the globe. After we had been at sea for several weeks, 

 or even months, it was not uncommon to find on board the Tuscan many kinds of 

 land-insects in a living state, from the hardy beetle to the delicate and more ephem- 

 eral butterfly, whose germs had probably been received on board together with sup- 

 plies of fruit and vegetables. 



The statement quoted from Bennet is one of the earhest definite refer- 

 ences that I have been able to find bearing upon the introduction of the 

 cosmopolitan butterfly, Vanessa cardni Linn., other than the unverified re- 

 port of four speciinens sent to the British Museum, two collected by Cap- 

 tain Byron in 1825 and two by Captain Beechey in 1827. (See Bibliography 

 Nos. 27 and 65.) 



Dr. Alonzo Chapin, a resident missionary, in writing on the diseases 

 of the Hawaiian islands in 1838, remarks (22, p. 253) upon the absence of 

 malaria as follows : 



Before going out to the Sandwich Islands. I spent several years in our 

 southern states, much of the time in the low country of South Carolina ; and 

 was, during the hot seasons of the year, accustomed to recoil at every standitig 

 body of water, on account of the poisonous exhaltions which they there emit, 

 endangering the lives of every individual exposed to their influence. On my ar- 

 rival at the islands, I more than once made the inquiry, "why the numerous kalo 

 (taro) ponds are not productive of sickness." Thousands of acres are entirely 

 converted into ponds of standing water in which the natives cultivate their kalo, 

 while their houses are built on the narrow spaces between. These are never 

 dry, and are often so numerous as to exhaust entire rivers in keeping them filled. 

 I could not at once reconcile my mind to the belief of their innoxious tendency, 

 notwithstanding circumstances are such as to make the fact very obvious. Though 

 the ponds are subject to the perpetual influence of a torrid sun, they cannot be- 

 come putrid by reason of the continual supply of fresh water, and multitudes of 

 fish live and thrive in them, such is their freshness and purity. 



The streams originate from springs and rain on the summits of the moun- 

 tains, pour down their sides with great impetuosity and after a few meanderings 

 are turned aside from their courses to irrigate the lands and replenish the ponds, 

 or are discharged directly into the sea ; and I know of no body of water emitting 

 sufficient miasma to create sickness along its borders. I have occasionally met 

 with stagnant ponds, which emit a foul and offensive odour, and could in no way 

 satisfy myself of the reason for the exemption of the inhabitants along their 

 borders from fevers, but by supposing the efiluvia to be diluted and rendered 

 inert by the continual currents of winds. 



Small marshes abound but are fed by springs, and the pure mountain streams, 

 and are thus prevented becoming noxious. They speedily dry up during a few 

 weeks absence of rain ; and the rivers also disappear unless kept alive by fre- 

 quent showers, and the small pools, which remain at such times and which abound 

 after every rainy season, do not become sufliciently putrid to exhale a fever- 

 generating miasm. 



