352 MY LIFE 



lines only. I see you say you must have near 500 species 

 of Longicorns ; but I do not know if this refers to Ega 

 only, or to your whole South American collections. 



" The Geodephaga, always rare in the tropics, we must 

 expect to be still more so in a level forest country so near the 

 equator, yet I have found more species than I anticipated — 

 as nearly as I can reckon, a hundred — twenty-four being 

 Cicindelidae (tiger beetles) of various groups. 



" Lamellicorns are very scarce, about one hundred and 

 forty species in all, of which twenty-five are Cetoniidse, all 

 rare, and about the same number of Lucanidse. Elaters are 

 rather plentiful, but with few exceptions small and obscure. 

 I have one hundred and forty species, one nearly three inches 

 long, and several of one and a half inch. The Buprestidse 

 are exceedingly beautiful, but the larger and finer species are 

 very rare. I have one hundred and ten species, of which half 

 are under one-third of an inch long, though one, Catoxantha 

 bicolor, is two and a half inches. Two genera of Cleridse are 

 rather abundant, others rare ; but I have obtained about fifty 

 species, which, compared with the very few previously known, 

 is very satisfactory. Of the remaining groups, in which I 

 took less interest, I have not accurately noted the number of 

 species. 



" The individual abundance of beetles is not, however, so 

 large as the number of species would indicate. I hardly 

 collect on an average more than fifty beetles a day, in which 

 number there will be from thirty to forty species. Often, in 

 fact, twenty or thirty beetles are as much as I can scrape 

 together, even when giving my whole attention to them, for 

 butterflies are too scarce to distract it. Of the other orders 

 of insects, I have no accurate notes ; the species, however, of 

 all united (excluding Lepidoptera) about equal those of the 

 beetles. I found one place only where I could collect moths, 

 and have obtained altogether about one thousand species, 

 mostly of small or average size. My total number of species 

 of insects, therefore, I reckon at about six thousand, and of 

 specimens collected about thirty thousand. From these data 

 I think you will be able to form a pretty good judgment of 



