Correspondence of Mr. Bates. 3321 



Extracts from the Correspondence of Mr. H. W. Bates, now forming 

 Entomological Collections in South America. 



(Continued from page 3232). 



Para, Jane 3, 1851. 

 I now send the remainder of my Ega collection, not having found 

 it convenient to send it by the "Princess Royal" to London, as 1 had 

 informed you I should in my last. The alligator's skull is now im- 

 perfect, from want of teeth ; I think they have been stolen by people 

 in the house to make charms of. The birds I suppose are not a very 

 fine lot, but there appear to be some rare things, as the blue Piosoca, 

 a pair of a species of Aracare I have not before seen, a male Ourami- 

 meu, &c. In the insects there are I suppose some good things in 

 Coleoptera. The large Prionus I suppose is a Titanus, but not the 

 largest species : they are exceedingly rare and difficult to procure, 

 turning up only by accident. The larger species has also occurred two 

 or three times here, but I have not yet succeeded in getting a perfect 

 specimen. Amongst the other longicorns and Curculiones, especially 

 the genus Gorgus, I think there must be some new and fine things. 

 I worked very hard for Coleoptera in Ega from the 1st of January to 

 the 20th of March, being the showery and sunny season, before the 

 constant rains set in. Whenever I heard of beetles seen at a distance, 

 I would get a boat and go many miles after them, and employed a 

 man (the only one disposed for such work in the whole village) with 

 his family, who worked in some clearing in the forest, to hunt for me. 

 Every day he brought me from ten to twenty Coleoptera, and thus I 

 got some of my best things : so that I think I looked Ega pretty well, 

 and the results may be taken as representing the products of the Up- 

 per Amazons. In Lepidoptera I send you one more of the new Calli- 

 thea, and one Hetaera Andromeda, which, if you have not yet reserved 

 a perfect specimen of in my previous collection, you will please to 

 reserve for me : there are also two fine new Papilios. I believe, at 

 every station up the Amazons to the Andes, one or two new Papilios 

 would be found, they seem to be so local, P. Sesostris appearing to be 

 the only species of this section common to all the stations. 



I am here now in Para, working very hard, and thinking what is 

 best to be done next. After all, I think I shall not be able to settle 

 at home in a quiet life, but at the same time think that the Amazons 

 is now for the present pretty well worked ; for although there is more 

 difference in species than might be expected at the different stations 

 X. c 



