1893.J 25 



Eesident of Amboyna, is visited by him aunually, and the Dutch mail 

 steamer which goes the rounds of the Aru, Ke, and other remote 

 eastern islands, calls here for a few hours at intervals of about thi-ee 

 months. 



I soon found that, although there was no lack of interesting in- 

 sects in the forest, it was almost impossible to get about owing to the 

 want of paths and the steep and rugged character of the hill sides, 

 and I was very glad to find, at the head of the harbour, a considerable 

 extent of nearly flat land, partly under cultivation, and partly swampy, 

 with a dense growth of sago and coco-nut palms, while the rugged 

 and rocky bed of a fine clear stream, which came down from the hills, 

 enabled me to penetrate about a mile into the interior of the island, 

 which is only ten miles long by about five in width. Butterflies were 

 fairly plentiful, and I secured representatives of about 25 species, 

 manjr of w'hich bear a very close resemblance to those described and 

 figured by Mr. Butler (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1883, pp. 365—371, and 

 plate 38) from Mr. H. 0. Forbes' captures in Timour-laut, about 200 

 miles to the eastward of Damma. This is especially the case with the 

 s\-)ecies of Suploe a and Danais, the most common and characteristic 

 butterflies of the island. In this remote part of the far east I was 

 much pleased to meet with Danais Flescippus (Archippus), a very large, 

 light coloured ? specimen ; Neptis aceris, or a species very similar to 

 it, was not rare, and some very pretty little Lyccenidw were taken, 

 chiefly along the course of the stream. Here, too, I saw several spe- 

 cimens of a fine Papilio (apparently of the ''Mcjeus " group) and of 

 a large light coloured Charaxes, but unfortunately failed to secure a 

 specimen of either. 



Goleoptera were fairly well represented, as I had the good luck 

 to find two or three small clearings of various ages on the skirts of 

 the forest, the dead and partially burned timber in which (although 

 usually very dry) yielded an abundant harvest of small but interesting 

 Nitidulidce, Gossonidce, Cucujidce, B7-enthid(B, TenebrionidcB, &c., &c., 

 under the loose bark, while two or three handsome Longicorns, 

 and two large and exceedingly conspicuous species of BuprestidcB* 

 were not uncommon, flying very actively in the hot sunshine and 

 settling on logs and stumps, where they were not always easy to 

 secure. A very fine and curious Staphylinid {Leptochirus sp.) was 

 not rare in the damp fibrous debris left from sago washing on the banks 

 of the stream. Brushing and beating foliage w-as not very productive, 



* Cyphogaslra abdominalis , Waterh., und PKeudochrysodema (?) Walkeri, Waterh. (Ann. and Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. L6J, x, pp. 411. 412). 



