5054 Natural-History Collectors. 



time, however, I was so unwell as not to make more than five visits 

 to the forest, to be near which was the especial purpose for which I 

 went there. It was also the very end of the dry season, which I have 

 always found the worst time for insects. Notwithstanding these 

 drawbacks, my collection presents some features of interest. To pro- 

 ceed in order, the Coleoptera shall be first considered. The number 

 of species yet obtained is only 254, some groups being rich, others 

 very poor. My favourite Longicorns were so scarce as hardly to be 

 worth looking for; yet among the few that fell in my way I have a 

 new Agelasta, a fine Astathes, and a very curious insect with dilated 

 thorax in the male, which will form, I think, a new genus, nearTem- 

 nosternus, White. The Geodephaga are proportionately my richest 

 group, as since the rains have commenced I have taken many curious 

 small Carabidae, among them three species of Casnonia?. I am rich 

 in Cicindela, having six species, but of Colliuris and Therates only 

 one each. Cicindela Heros, Fab. (which I believe is rare) is my 

 largest species. In Boisduval's £ Faune de FOceanie' it is said to 

 come from the isles of the Pacific. Therates flavilabris, Fab., is also 

 said to inhabit New Ireland, but it is found here, with the var. T. 

 fasciata. The habitats given to insects in that work, indeed, from the 

 French voyagers, appear so liable to error that little dependance cau 

 be placed upon them. They seem to have been trusted altogether to 

 memory, or perhaps ticketed on the voyage home. For example, to 

 Scarabaeus Atlas is this remark, " It is noted as from Vanikoro I., 

 but M. D'Urville is certain that it was taken at Menado in Celebes;" 

 again, to Tmesisternus septempunctatus, " If there is no mistake on 

 the ticket, this species is from Amboina ;" Lamia 8-maculata, " It is 

 ticketed as coming from Vanikoro, but I believe it is rather from N. 

 Guinea or Celebes ; " and L. Hercules, " It is found in Amboina," 

 while on the plate it is said to be from Celebes. Other examples of 

 a similar kind are to be found ; and they lead me to suppose that 

 voyagers and amateur collectors seldom ticket their specimens at the 

 time of collection, but trust to memory in a matter in which no 

 memory can be trusted. Even after making a collection at two loca- 

 lities only, and of only a hundred species each, I would defy any one 

 to ticket the whole correctly : how, then, must it be when dozens of 

 places are visited in succession, and the species taken at each vary 

 from perhaps a dozen to a thousand. But we must return to our col- 

 lections. In Lamellicornes I have been tolerably successful. I have 

 found ten species of Cetoniadse ; a Tseniodera, common, I think ; and 

 the other nine all Prola3tias, a closely allied genus. All except one 



