96 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



several days after leaving the land. The mosquitoes of several 

 kinds, larger and smaller, were an intolerable nuisance, not only 

 to the whites but also to the natives. On the lee side of Funafuti 

 neither black nor white could snatch an hour's sleep at night 

 without the protection of curtains. Before civilisation mats 

 were used for this purpose on Funafuti. Writing of Stewart's 

 Islands in 1851, Mr. John Webster says*: 'A screen of fine 

 matting was let down from the ceiling and surrounded my bed 

 to keep out mosquitoes and other noxious insects.' To avoid the 

 mosquitoes the natives often crossed the islet and slept on the 

 windward side. The small islets on the leeward side of the 

 atoll were much freer from these pests, and I have slept there all 

 night in comfort in the open." 



Although mosquitoes have been known to the natives of these 

 islands, probably from time immemorial, there is no doubt that 

 some species have been introduced by the agency of traders, for 

 the few brought home by Mr.'Hedley show that Culex hispiodosus, 

 Sk., and Megarrhina inornata, Walk. the former common in 

 Australia and the latter in New Guinea have each taken up 

 their abode in the Ellice Group. The Rev. Dr. W. Wyatt Gill, 

 writing of the mosquitoes in the Hervey Islands,! says : " There 

 are some islands where this annoying insect was until lately 

 unknown. The old men of Penrhyns, Rakaanga, and Manihiki 

 assure me that no mosquito was ever seen on those atolls until 

 some years after the introduction of Christianity. Although 

 mosquitoes were (accidentally) conveyed to Penrhyns and Ra- 

 kaanga in 1859, and to Manihiki so lately as 1862, in water-casks 

 filled at Raratonga, they are plentiful in all three islands." 

 Again, Mr. Woodford in his paper on " The Gilbert Islands," 

 says: "Mosquitoes occurred on some islands; on others, as at 

 Kuria, I did not notice them."J 



Looking over Mr. Medley's memoranda, I read the following 

 interesting note, describing the ingenious method adopted by the 

 natives at Funafuti for the purpose of capturing insects : 

 " Mosquitoes and other insects were caught thus by the natives : 

 a forked stick was converted into a hoop by tying together the 

 arms of the fork. This was passed over and over through the 

 snares of the orb-weaving spiders till the hoop was filled by a 

 membrane of glutinous spider-threads. By this any insect would 

 be struck and meshed." 



So far as fleas are concerned, Mr. Medley says that notwith- 

 standing the fact that all conditions suitable for their propagation 

 are present, they are unknown at Funafuti. 



* Webster Last Cruise of the " Wanderer," Sydney (n.d.), p. 59. 

 f Gill Jottings from the Pacific, 1885, p. 162. 

 I Geogr. Journ., vi., 4, 1895, p. 348. 



