CHAP. XXXIV.] CURIOUS INSECTS. 313 



disturbed by visitors so nrncb as I bad expected to be. 

 About tbis time tbe weatber set in pretty fine, but neitber 

 birds nor insects became much more abundant, and new 

 birds were very scarce. None of the Birds of Paradise 

 except the common one were ever met with, and we were 

 still searching in vain for several of the fine birds which 

 Lesson had obtained here. Insects were tolerably abun- 

 dant, but were not on the average so fine as those of 

 Amboyna, and I reluctantly came to the conclusion that 

 Dorey was not a good collecting locality. Butterflies were 

 very scarce, and were mostly the same as those which I 

 had obtained at Aru. 



Among the insects of other orders, the most curious and 

 novel were a group of horned flies, of which I obtained 

 four distinct species, settling on fallen trees and decaying 

 trunks. These remarkable insects, which have been de- 

 scribed by Mr. W. W. Saunders as a new genus, under the 

 name of Elaphomia or deer-flies, are about half an inch 

 long, slender-bodied, and with very long legs, which they 

 draw together so as to elevate their bodies high above the 

 surface they are standing upon. The front pair of legs 

 are much shorter, and these are often stretched directly 

 forwards, so a^ to resemble antennae. The horns spring 

 from beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation of 

 the lower part of the orbit. In the largest and most 

 singular species, named Elaphomia cervicornis or the stag- 



