Natural- History Collectors. 5661 



with fulvous rings : another new Agrias, — fore-wings rich crimson, ex- 

 cept the extreme tips, with a cobalt bloom ; hind-wings almost wholly 

 blue; beneath much more variegated than in the other species. In 

 Coleoptera, an Allorhina all bronze velvety, 14 lines long, — it is about 

 the finest Coleoptera I have yet taken, to my thinking; also two 

 beautiful new Gymnetes. In Hymenoptera, a new form of ant, — must 

 be a new family, equal to Myrmicidse and Formicidaj, because it has 

 no nodular segment to abdomen ; the neuration and prothorax of the 

 female is very different from anything in Scoliidae or Mutillidae. In 

 the same order I have also a male of Mr. Smith's Euglossa pulchra, 

 which has greatly pleased me. I have worked hard for Geodephaga : 

 one day whilst grubbing along the muddy margins of a brook I turned 

 up a huge Oodes, 10 lines long, brassy. I got also a new Brachinus. 

 The Scaritidae only are numerous here : of true Carabidae I do not find 

 a single species. 



Trenantins, Upper Amazons, November 23, 1856. — I left Ega on the 

 7th of November, by steamer, on a short excursion to this place : it is, 

 I think, about 180 miles, in a direct line, above Ega; but there are 

 considerable bends in the river, and very strong currents, so that it 

 took the steamer four days and nights to make the passage. I chose 

 this place for a visit because it lies on the north bank of the Amazons, 

 on the "Terra firme," which is continuous with the banks of the 

 Japura up to the Andes, and is separated from Ega by the vast expanse 

 of low-flooded lands forming the deltas of the Japura, Jurn&, &c. I 

 reached here on the 11th, and began to work on the 12th, so that I have 

 had twelve days' collecting. I am sorry to find that insects of all kinds 

 are very scarce, — a fact which I cannot explain, as the grounds are 

 most excellent, much varied, — swamp, dry forest, "ygapo," clay soil, 

 sandy soil, magnificent forest-paths, — in fact, all that could be desired. 

 A good number of the species which first turned up were new, and when 

 I do find a beetle in the woods it is almost sure to be a new one : the 

 conclusion is that it will require many months' stay to get a fair collec- 

 tion ; but I cannot stay so long, for the immense number of insect- 

 pests (clouds of "piums" by day and mosquitos by night), added to 

 positive hunger (for next to nothing is to be had to eat), are beyond 

 my powers of endurance. 



In Diurnes I found at once two new Cybdeles very abundant, and 

 I have seen several of a third, too nimble for me to capture as yet. 

 I have got one new Eubagis, the largest of the genus ; one very dis- 

 tinct new Ithomia ; and I see a new Timetes, but cannot as yet capture 



