INSECTS. 59 



they are plentiful, and are excellent in quality. Although 

 fish is somewhat scarce in the waters of the interior, the 

 beautiful drawings in Pollen and Van Dam's work on the 

 Madagascar fauna show that in the north-western rivers of 

 the island there is a considerable variety of bright- coloured 

 and grotesquely-shaped fish. These are striped with wavy 

 bands of bright blue from the head to the tail, these bands 

 looking as if they were painted over the ground-colour of the 

 fish, which is golden-red or brown. As soon as the fresh- 

 water fish have been carefully collected all over the island, 

 they will doubtless furnish some important facts, throwing 

 light upon the derivation of the fauna. 



Insects. — The insects of Madagascar present much that is 

 remarkable as regards their relationship, and a great deal that 

 is interesting and beautiful in the shape and colouring of the 

 various orders. 



Many parts of the island are rich in butterflies, some of 

 the finest being found in the bare interior plateaux, amongst 

 them the magnificent diurnal moth, Urania riphceus. This 

 was frequently brought to me, and is certainly one of the 

 most beautiful of lepidopterous insects ; its gorgeous wings of 

 green and gold, ending in several tails like a papilio, are edged 

 with a delicate fringe of purest white feathery scales. It is 

 also one of the most interesting of the Madagascar lepidoptera, 

 from the fact that all the other species of the genus inhabit 

 tropical America and the West India Islands. In a journey 

 to the south-east of Madagascar, in 1 876, 1 was greatly struck 

 with the numbers of individuals and variety of species of 

 butterfly seen on the banks of the Matitanana ; and in coming 

 up the eastern forest on the Tamatave route, I have seen some 

 of the streams covered with a cloud of green and black and 

 blue and black butterflies. Some of the nocturnal moths are 

 very large, the wings spreading over six or seven inches, and 

 with lovely shading and spots of brown and fawn colour. 

 There seems, however, to be only one genus peculiar to 

 Madagascar, and this belongs to the family of Satyridje. 

 There are two species of caterpillar from which silk is ob- 

 tained ; from one of these the silk is of so strong a quality, 

 although not brilliant, that it is asserted that pieces of it, 



