5114 Zoology of Borneo, 



In Entomology 1 was much more successful, and became, for that 

 very reason, much more interested in this branch of Natural History. 

 1 collected very assiduously, and having, at the commencement of the 

 dry season, been fortunate enough to discover a good locality, I per- 

 severingly worked at it for eight months, and the result has been a 

 collection which for the number of species, I should imagine, has 

 rarely been surpassed by a single collector, in one season and at one 

 station. 



I find, on referring to my notes, that I have collected in Borneo 

 about 5000 species of insects and upwards of 25,000 specimens. The 

 species may be approximately divided thus : — 



Coleoptera 2000 



Lepidoptera (principally moths) . . 1500 

 Other orders 1500 



The Coleoptera were collected as thoroughly as possible, no groups 

 being neglected in favour of others, and the minute as well as the 

 larger species being in every case secured. I am in hopes, therefore, 

 that this collection may give a true idea of the Entomology of this 

 country, which can never be done when the small and obscure insects 

 are either little sought after or entirely neglected. This, however, has 

 been generally the case in collections from tropical countries. Num- 

 bers of large and brilliant insects have been obtained, perhaps over a 

 large extent of country, and during several successive seasons; and 

 the results, exhibited in our museums, have been too often held to give 

 a correct idea of the Entomology of the Tropics, and have led to hasty 

 generalizations and very erroneous views as to the universal charac- 

 teristics of the productions of hot and cold climates. But let us sup- 

 pose that, instead of Western Europe, some tropical country, such as 

 Borneo or the peninsula of India, had been long inhabited by a race 

 of entomologists, while the whole temperate zone was comparatively 

 unexplored : would not the magnificent Carabidse of Europe, the 

 Cetoniadye of the Cape and of N. China, and the large and handsome 

 insects of various families culled from all the countries of the temperate 

 zone, have been held to prove that excessive heat was not so prolific 

 of fine forms and brilliant colours as a lower temperature and a more 

 varied climate ? When, too, the forms of tropical insects were familiar, 

 those of colder countries would be looked upon with more interest and 

 admiration, and the true Carabi would certainly be pointed to as a 

 group unequalled by anything the Tropics could produce. My Bornean 

 collection shows that brilliant colours are by no means the necessary 



