4116 Natural-History Collectors. 



fixed interest in the objects has constantly increased. I do not now 

 feel startled to see, instead of a few Pieris Rapae, Gonepteryx Rham- 

 ni, Vanessa Urticae, Polyommatus Alexis, &c, crowds of large yellow 

 and orange Callidryas, madly darting about the suburbs, with quanti- 

 ties of the green Cethonia Dido, Agraulis Vanillae, strange silver-span- 

 gled Argynnidae, with long narrow wings, numbers of delicate little 

 Terias, where there is a carpeting of flowering shrubs ; big Phanaei, 

 especially Ph. lancifer and Ph. Mimus, and great heavy Coprides, ly- 

 ing smashed on the path-ways in early morning; bright green Calli- 

 chromas, with red legs, smelling of musk more strongly than your 

 nearly allied Aromia moschata, pestering one everywhere on showery 

 days ; besides another of the Cerambycidae — Chlorida festiva — flying 

 into one's face whilst writing by lamp-light. One entomological phe- 

 nomenon, which struck me very much on my first arrival, I have now 

 got so used to as not to notice it, except when I make an effort to do 

 so ; it is the wonderful incessant ringing of the Grylli and Acridia at 

 night, in the suburbs of the towns, joined to the quacking, drumming, 

 and hooting of the toads and tree-frogs : it fills the air with a reso- 

 nance of life quite magical to a European. I speak now only of open 

 grounds in the suburbs of towns ; but where I should like to accom- 

 pany you is through the over-arching shades of roads in the virgin 

 forest. The insects of open grounds are all species very common 

 throughout Tropical America ; in the forests everything is different : 

 and here we cannot make any comparison intelligible to an English 

 entomologist. Of moths you see very few, at night none. Some things 

 allied to Polia and Acronycta we see very rarely on trunks ; the other 

 Noctuae are almost entirely of the genus Erebus, known by the long, 

 cylindrical, terminal joint of the palpi : they lurk amidst the murkiest 

 shades, and settle generally at the foot of tree-trunks, surrounded by 

 entangled sipes at night. Some species frequent houses, but these are 

 always different from those of the forests : many I have seen without 

 being able to secure specimens of as yet : twice I have seen Erebus 

 Strix, expanding nearly a foot in breadth, applied flat to the trunks of 

 trees. Sesiadae are the most abundant Nocturnes ; perhaps I have 

 taken eighty species. As to Geometridae, they appear to be replaced 

 by the diurnal family Erycinidje, which Jiy out of bushes when beaten, 

 just as the Acidaliae, Emmelesiae, &c. do in England. There are 

 plenty of species of Tortricidae, some pretty Pyralidae, even Alucitidae, 

 in the woods, which you, with Messrs. Stainton & Co., would make 

 great things of, no doubt, if you were here, and not prevented from 



