CH. V FAUNA OF TALISSE 101 



It was in the months of September and October they were 

 most plentiful; in the rainy seasons they were not so 

 common. The method of procedure was as follows : I took up 

 a position in the middle of the path opposite my house armed 

 with a butterfly-net with a long stick. Presently I heard 

 the beetles coming — bur-r-r-r. I made a plunge in the dark- 

 ness overhead ia the direction the sound came from, and — 

 thud — the beast was in the net, or, more frequently the case, 

 was not. Sometimes ia this way I would catch three or four 

 beetles of an evening, bu often none at all. It was an 

 amusing form of sport, but very fatal to the net, which was 

 torn and gashed by beetles in a pitiable manner. 



The commonest form of Longicorn is the Batocera 

 celebiana of Thomson (73). The two yellow spots on the 

 thorax and bright red spots on the elytra are very bright 

 ia the hviag animal, but lose a great deal of their brilliancy 

 and effect when kept ia spirits. 



I pulled off the elytra of one of my specimens one day 

 with the purpose of dissecting it to see what food was ia its 

 stomach, when, to my surprise, I discovered a large number 

 of small parasites fixed on to the wiags, which turned out to 

 be Chelifers, or tailless scorpions. 



I caught one specimen of the wax insect {Plata marginata 

 var.), but it was in a very much damaged condition, and I 

 never saw it ia sufficient numbers to be of any commercial 

 value. 



Around all the huts in Talisse I noticed soon after my 

 arrival a number of little pits about an inch ia diameter ia 

 the loose sandy soil. These I soon found were the pitfalls 

 of a little ant-lion. They are situated immediately under 

 the edge of the roof, and appear to a casual observer to be 

 caused by the constant dripping of water or some small 

 bodies falling from it. I was not a little surprised to see 

 the precise and regular way in which these httle insects 



