CHAP. XXXIX.] OF THE PAPUAN ISLANDS. 433 



have left their record in mysterious, but still intelligible 

 characters on the face of organic nature. 



The insects of New Guinea are less known than the 

 birds, but they seem almost equally remarkable for fine 

 forms and brilliant colours. The magnificent green and 

 yellow Ornithopterse are abundant, and have most probably 

 spread westward from this point as far as India. Among 

 the smaller butterflies are several peculiar genera of Nym- 

 phalidae and Lycsenidae, remarkable for their large size, 

 singular markings, or brilliant coloration. The largest 

 and most beautiful of the clear-winged moths (Cocytia 

 d'urvillei) is found here, as well as the large and 

 handsome green moth (Nyctalemon orontes). The beetles 

 furnish us with many species of large size, and of 

 the most brilliant metallic lustre, among which the 

 Tmesisternus mirabilis, a longicorn beetle of a golden 

 green colour ; the excessively brilliant rose-chafers, Lomap- 

 tera wallacei and Anacamptorhina fulgida ; one of the 

 handsomest of the Buprestidse, Calodema wallacei; and 

 several fine blue weevils of the genus Eupholus, are 

 perhaps the most conspicuous. Almost all the other 

 orders furnish us with large or extraordinary forms. The 

 curious horned flies have already been mentioned; and 

 among the Orthoptera the great shielded grasshoppers 

 are the most remarkable. The species here figured (Mega- 



VOL. II. F p 



