5890 



Insects. 



species were very limited in number, and a new one began to be a 

 rarity. With all my exertions I could only muster 90 species of but- 

 terflies and 235 Coleoptera at the end of one month, which had 

 increased to 108 and 340 in two months, with 150 Hymenoptera, 120 

 Diptera, and other orders scanty, making a total of 850 species of 

 insects. Even this I believe is considerably more than all the New- 

 Guinea species yet known. Among ray butterflies the finest thing was 

 a superb Ornithoptera, differing very slightly from O. Poseidon of 

 Doubleday. Females of this were abundant, some measuring 9^ inches 

 across, the males scarcer and much more diflScult to capture, so that I 

 hardly got a really perfect specimen. The excitement of chasing this 

 glorious insect may be imagined. The fine Papilio Euchenor, Guer., 

 was also by no means uncommon, but very difEcult to take, having a 

 wild zigzag moth -like flight. P. Ormenus, Gyer.^ was also often seen, 

 but as rarely taken. Of a new species, near JEgistus, I got but .a sin- 

 gle specimen, and never saw another, and the rare and magnificent 

 P. Ulysses I saw almost daily, without even a chance of obtaining a 

 specimen. A Hamadryas, perhaps H. Zoilus, is one of the commonest 

 of the forest butterflies, and, from its weak flight, most easily taken : 

 It has all the appearance and habits of the Ithomiae of S. America. 

 Five or six species of Euploea, and as many of Pieris, are abundant, 

 some pretty little Satyridae, and from 20 to 30 species of Lycenidae 

 and Erycinidse, many of which will bear comparison with the loveliest 

 gems of the Amazonian forests. 



Among the Coleoptera the most remarkable things were six or seven 

 species of Traesisternus, a fine Gnoma, and a new genus allied to 

 Golsinda, the males of which have the anterior coxae armed with a 

 long acute spine. The Curculionidae contained several very fine An- 

 thribidae, one, the giant of the family, being near an inch and a half 

 long, with very long legs and rather short antennae ; some singular 

 Brenthidae, the curious Arachnobos Gazella (Bois. Voy. de TAstrolabe, 

 t. 7, fig. 22), and a beautiful blue and black banded Curculio. La- 

 mellicornes are almost absent from this region : nine species of the 

 whole tribe were all that two months' work produced, and of these 

 half were single specimens only. There is probably no other country 

 where this extensive group is so near to being altogether absent. Two 

 fine species of Lomaptera, however, are among this little lot, — I think 

 both new : they fly about in the jungle near the ground, with a loud 

 humming noise, and settle on rotten wood, never on flowers, except 

 at the opening spathes of the cocoa nut : they are very shy, and take 

 flight so suddenly, keeping among thickets and rotten branches of 



