62 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society voi. viii 



A Wandering Collector's Narrative* 



By George Franck, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



It was my intention, originally, to prepare a paper on insects 

 injurious to fruit trees, but the return of one of my collectors 

 from the Malayan Archipelago, New Guinea, etc., caused me to 

 change the subject to his talk on collecting in the Tropics of the 

 Malayan Archipelago and Australian Island. So many inter- 

 esting points are still fresh in my memory that they cannot fail 

 to hold the attention of my hearers. 



A space of five years has elapsed since Mr. Kibler was here 

 before, fresh then from a trip to the far upper Amazon regions 

 I gave a description of his experience in Brazil at that time and 

 therefore omit any remarks on his collecting in South America, 

 going right over to the first stop of his last trip, Madagascar. 

 His collecting, as well as his personal experience, in Madagascar 

 was neither cheerful nor financially encouraging. He reached 

 the place in the rainy season and those insects characteristic to 

 the island, which he was anxious to obtain, he did not get at all 

 He went from one end of the Island to the other and such things 

 as Uranus ripheus, Hypolymnas doxithea and several others, 

 which belong to the fauna of Madagascar, he failed to get. On 

 one of his collecting trips he had a narrow escape from a wild 

 buffalo and barely saved his life by throwing his coat over the 

 head of the animal, which became entangled in the folds of the 

 coat while Kibler escaped by climbing a tree. A severe tornado 

 also came very near ending his adventuresome life. Finally, 

 through sheer disgust, he gave up Madagascar as a very poor 

 investment. Then he sailed for Mauritius and in the beautiful 

 balmy climate of this country he recuperated, doing what little 

 collecting was possible — especially successful with the charming 

 Precis rhadma. From there he struck out for the island of Nias, 

 to the south of Ceylon and from that point his actual collecting 

 in the Malayan Archipelago starts. 



Nias is noted, especially, as the home of Hebomoia vossi — 

 nowhere else in the world is this insect found. This is a beautiful 

 species belonging to the Pieridae and one of the group of insects 

 which have their homes chiefly in islands of the Malayan Archi- 



Read before the Brooklyn Entomological Society. 



