COLLECTING INSECTS ON THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA 



By EDWARD A. CHAPIN 

 Curator, Division of Insects, U. S. National Museum 



Because of the inadequacy of the collection of Jamaica insects in 

 the National Museum, I was granted permission to spend 5 weeks 

 on the island early in 1937. The major objective of the trip was to 

 secure beetles of the family Scarabaeidae, but it was also intended 

 that general insect collections would be made. Leaving New York by 

 the United Fruit Company S. S. Quirigua and spending a very profit- 

 able and pleasant day at the Cuban Agricultural Experiment Station 

 at Santiago de las Vegas en route, I arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, the 

 afternoon of January 27. Preliminary arrangments for lodging and 

 transportation had been made for me by Dr. R. E. Blackwelder, 

 present holder of the Smithsonian's Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling 

 Scholarship. 



Jamaica lies in the Caribbean Sea about 80 miles south of Cuba, 

 is roughly 150 miles east and west, by 50 miles north and south, and 

 offers to the naturalist as wide a range of habitats as is to be found 

 in a tropical island. From sea level with mangrove swamps and marshy 

 savannahs, one may go in a short distance to the tops of the Blue 

 Mountains nearly 7,400 feet above. Much of the land is under cultiva- 

 tion, but there are forested areas in various parts of the island. 



During the first half of my stay, headquarters were made at Half 

 Way Tree, a suburb of Kingston. From here by motor car we were 

 able to reach within the day any desired locality in the eastern half 

 of the island. Best collecting grounds were found at Bath in 

 St. Thomas, in Friendship Valley (south of Port Antonio and in the 

 John Crow Mountains), near Manchioneal, and along the Rio Cobre 

 between Kingston and Spanish Town. At Bath we were fortunate 

 in finding a recently felled cotton tree (Ceiba) from part of which 

 a dug-out canoe had been made. On the remains of the trunk and 

 large branches we took many specimens of a large cerambycid 

 (Steirastoma histrionicum White) and many other striking Coleoptera. 

 Nearby in the Plantain Garden River many Dryopids were taken from 

 under stones. From the very soft trunk of a tree long dead (probably 

 also a Ceiba) two species of Rhyssodidae, a beetle family not known 

 to inhabit the island, were taken. 



Through the generous hospitality of the Bovells of Caymanas 

 Estates Limited, we were permitted to spend 2 weeks with head- 



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