xlvi ITINERARY. 



with thick layers of them, clinging to each other, and evidently congi'e- 

 gated where they could get the warmth of the air escaping through 

 the apex of the thatch, which is always left loosely layered at this 

 point, giving a good draught for the smoke of the many iires within at 

 night. Till quite late in the chill morning, the insects clung to their 

 perch. In the wooded valley below, they were numerous, particularly 

 in and around a very extensive abandoned provision-field, where some 

 tall simaruba trees were so thickly crowded with them in the evenings, 

 on stem and branches, that the ground beneath had become literally 

 a bed of their excrement and dead bodies ; and it was impossible to 

 move about without disturbing numbers of them where they clung 

 thickly to the bushes or rested on the debris on the ground. The 

 coarse early second growth in these abandoned fields, a thicket of 

 trumpet trees {Cecropia peltata), young simaruba, spiny solanums, etc., 

 with a close overgrowth of scandent coarse grasses, sedges, and creepers 

 of many kinds, allows insects like these to breed up in excessive 

 numbers where they are hidden and protected from the hawks, which 

 so largely help to keep them in check ; and I am inclined to think that, 

 mainly in this way, the great numbers are started, which, from time 

 to time in favourable seasons, become so great a scourge to tlie 

 cultivated areas in diflferent parts of the colony. 



It was quite an event to get a record of the true large lantern-fly 

 (Fulgora) in one of these forests of the sandstone plateau. The species 

 is known by the name " Androwa " among the Makushis, and a dead 

 specimen was brought to me by an Indian who had caught it alive in 

 the valley. He had secured it because of the brightness of the light of 

 the enlarged front of the head, to which he pointed ; though he had 

 been at first somewhat alarmed by it, as being some sort of kenaima 

 or bad spirit. As the man knew nothing of the disputes as to the 

 luminosity of th§ species, his testimony must be regarded as valuable 

 and definite, although it is quite possible that the light may be 

 dependent on seasons, as a purely sexual character. Eager search for 

 a living one met with no success. We were rewarded, however, by 

 finding a fine leaf -insect of the handsome genus Pteroohroa, the species 

 having green front wings — the tint, reticulated veining, and perfect 

 shape of the apparent leaf being astonishing. But for its movement, 

 it would never have been detected, the protection being even more 

 remarkable than in the strange stick insects, which so closely resemble 

 dried twigs. On the first journey in the Kanuku Mountains, we had 

 found another species, in which the resemblance was to a fading 

 yellowish-brown leaf, and equally remarkable in its protective character. 



Occasionally we secured some honey at some of the villages for the 

 men, w:ho are very fond of it. It was dark in colour, much like the 

 moorland honey, but watery. There was never any real comb, but 

 large globular or urceolate cells, singly or in groups, filled with honey, 

 and from which large quantities are at times obtained. It was 

 generally a stiff task getting at the cells in the hollow parts of large 

 trees, and when encountered on the track there was seldom time to be 

 spared, except near a camp, or when they were in the recesses of the 

 rocks ; and sometimes the small qiiantity found was no reward for the 

 effort, though the men were always ready for the attempt. 



