Natural-History Collectors. 5655 



are small, and of that one (an inch long) I have only a pair, differing 

 in colour, one black, one dark green, but, as they are marked with 

 red exactly alike, I suppose them to be male and female. Among 

 the smaller ones are some very pretty species and varieties, and of 

 some of these 1 have a tolerable series. They are very local. All 

 the best I got off one flowering shrub, which I visited daily for 

 a week, when some heavy rains destroyed the remnant of the blos- 

 soms; and I never found another equally productive. There is also 

 a curious little brown thing, like a Trichius, which eats away roses 

 and orange-blossoms. 1 have two Euchloras, which T think are rare, 

 E. dichropus, Blanch., and a large one, very like E. viridis, but 

 which seems to agree best with E. Dusumieri, Blanch. Besides 

 these I have only a lot of obscure Melolonthidue, Aphodii, &c, &c. 

 I had quite forgot, however, among the Carabidae, what will perhaps 

 be considered my greatest prize, Catadromus tenebrioides ; but it is 

 very scarce. I have not found a single Lucanus ; and the natives to 

 whom I showed figures of them and other large insects, such as Sca- 

 rabaeus Atlas, denied their existence in the country ; but no de- 

 pendance is to be placed upon them, as they have not even a dis- 

 tinctive word for " beetle " in their language. In the other groups I 

 have nothing particular, except a few pretty Rhyncophora and Phy- 

 tophaga. 



It is an ill wind, however, that blows nobody good ; and the 

 scarcity of Coleoptera will be highly satisfactory to some of my 

 hymenopterist friends, since it led me to pay more attention to their 

 favourite group than I should otherwise have been inclined to do. 

 After the first showers fell, bees and wasps appeared in plenty, and I 

 worked very hard at them. They are notoriously sunshine-loving 

 animals; and for many an hour, when my health ought not to have 

 permitted it, have I stood in the noonday sun, at some flowering 

 shrub where they abounded, armed with net, pliers and bottle, intent 

 npon their capture. On the whole I have made, I consider, a very 

 fine collection for such a very short time (less than two months). I 

 have obtained in all 14*2 species, but of these 120 (about) are Acu- 

 leata, and, only about 12 being bees, the great majority are wasps, 

 &c, of which many are very fine, large things, and the greater part 

 seem to me different from any I took in Malacca or Borneo. I have 

 also not neglected the small species, and I doubt not there will be a 

 host of novelties. 



The Diptera, Hemiptera, ants, &c, I have scarcely collected at 

 all, but they promise well for another season. 



