CHAP. XXIX.] ENTOMOLOOr. 191 



and seeing tliey were valuable, I sent him up again witli 

 my net to shake the flowers into, and thus secured a large 

 quantity. My best capture, however, was the superb 

 insect of the Buprestis family, already mentioned as 

 having been obtained from the natives, who told me they 

 found it in rotten trees in the mountains. 



In the forest itself the only common and conspicuous 

 coleoptera were two tiger beetles. One, Therates labiata, 

 was much larger than our green tiger beetle, of a purple 

 black colour, with green metallic glosses, and the broad 

 upper lip of a bright yellow. It was .always found upon 

 foliage, generally of broad-leaved herbaceous plants, and in 

 damp and gloomy situations, taking frequent short flights 

 from leaf to leaf, and preserving an alert attitude, as if 

 always looking out for its prey. Its vicinity could be im- 

 mediately ascertained, often before it was seen, by a very 

 pleasant odour, like otto of roses, which it seems to emit 

 continually, and which may probably be attractive to the 

 small insects on which it feeds. The other, Tricondyla 

 aptera, is one of the most curious forms in the family of 

 the Cicindelidee, and is almost exclusively confined to the 

 Malay islands. In shape it resembles a very large ant, 

 more than an inch long, and of a purple black colour. 

 Like an ant also it is wingless, and is generally found 

 ascending trees, passing around the trunks in a spiral 

 direction when approached, to avoid capture, so that it 



