On tMe Potaro. 353 



spinning apparatus. A broad yellow streak extended the 

 whole length of the abdomen, and the texture of the 

 whole body was of a rather hard nature. 



Some very singular spidery-looking creatures with 

 enormously long legs, one pair extremely attenuated and 

 hair-like, were often seen crawling over the bushes and 

 even in our tent. Their bodies were either brown or 

 yellow, almost round and very small. Specimens that I 

 colle6led and forwarded to the British Museum for identifi- 

 cation, were pronounced by the Arachnologist of that 

 famous institution, not to be true spiders, but to belong 

 to the family PhalangidcB or Harvestmen. Very little is 

 known of their habits, and their head quarters seem to be 

 in South America. 



One evening my men killed a large '* Ting-Ting, 

 Heterophrynus chirocanthus, but I never afterwards saw 

 another specimen. Butterflies, beetles, and a host of 

 other inserts were common. The magnificent bright 

 blue Morpho menelaus often glided noiselessly along our 

 trail, dazzling our eyes with its splendour. Low down 

 to the ground, transparent-winged HcetercB were ob- 

 served flitting among the brush-wood and appearing in 

 the subdued gloom of the forest more like the shades of 

 departed butterflies than real living things. 



The flame of our lamp at night attra6led a strange 

 looking Neuropterous inse6l having very long antennae, 

 which terminated in a club-shaped end with a yellow 

 spot in the middle of the club. Its wings were like 

 those of a dragon-fly with smoky brown refle6lions, and 

 black spots on the outer margins, a little below the 

 tips, which were more darkly shaded than the other parts. 

 The inse6ls belongs to the genus Ascalaphus and looks 



YY2 



