Insects. 



5893 



And of the following, 563 species, viz. : — 



Hemiptera ... 80 Oithoptera ... 18 



Homoptera ... 50 Neuvoptera ... 10 



Hyinenoptera . . . 214 Foificula, Blatta, &c. . 6 



Diptera . . . .185 



Total species of insects . . . 1364 



In the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera it will be seen there is a striking 

 deficiency of species. In both Singapore and Borneo I obtained, in 

 the same time, more than twice as many beetles, while in South Ame- 

 rica either of the families of Erycinidae or Hesperidae far outnumber 

 the whole amount of the Aru butterflies. Such poverty is a great 

 drawback in this otherwise interesting country, and, were it not that 

 there are a few remarkably fine things, and a considerable proportion 

 of the species are either new or very rare, it would not be worth a 

 collector's while to remain in it. There are scarcely twenty butterflies 

 of which I have been able to obtain tolerable series of good specimens. 

 I am now convinced that the number of species of butterflies dimi- 

 nishes from continental India, as you go eastward. In Java and 

 Borneo there are less than in India and Borinah, in the Moluccas and 

 New Guinea still less, and in the Islands of the Pacific scarcely any. 

 The same rule probably holds in Coleoptera, though of that I am not 

 so sure till I have seen more of the country, as peculiar circumstances 

 of station and locality make a great difi'erence in that order. 



I should mention that, in the above list, I have included about 90 

 species of various orders taken in a few days at Ke Island, 60 miles 

 west of Aru. In no part of the tropics I have visited has so much 

 care been required to preserve my collections as in the eastern por- 

 tions of the Indian Archipelago. Three or four distinct species of 

 ants are ever on the watch for soft insects, which they find out and 

 attack with the most astonishing celerity : two of these are very minute 

 and will not be banished. They struggle over water, drop from the 

 roof, and lurk in cracks and crannies where it is impossible to dislodge 

 them ; and again and again have my specimens of minute Diptera 

 and Lepidoptera been destroyed hy them. The larger species are 

 more easily kept out, but far more destructive when they do eff'ect an 

 entrance, and they never miss an opportunity. A hanging shelf iso- 

 lated by oil had kept my drying box more than a month in safety, 

 when one morning I found it swarming with red ants, and several fine 

 butterflies taken the day before being carried away piecemeal. 

 Searching for the bridge by which they had reached my fortress, I 

 found that my Malay boy had carelessly thrown a palm-leaf mat be- 

 hind the shelf, the corner of which just touched it, and how presented 



