5894 



Insects. 



a double line of entering and returning ants. I called him to see the 

 mischief he had done, and then, putting all right, went into the forest, 

 and had a successful day, obtaining several fine and some new butter- 

 flies. At night, before going to bed, I carefully examined all round 

 my shelf, but the next morning the enemy had again entered ; again 

 my fine insects were being carried away piecemeal, and I was only 

 just in time to save one lovely and unique butterfly from total destruc- 

 tion : again I searched, — for a ladder I knew there must be, — and 

 found my unlucky boy had again done the mischief : he had been 

 roasting coffee for our return voyage, packed it in ajar, and tied to it 

 a long slender rattan, by which to secure it on board ; this he had 

 placed on the floor under the shelf, with other sundries, and the rattan 

 sticking up its extreme point just touched the shelf beneath. One 

 would think the ants must every night explore and wander every- 

 where, for they never fail to discover even a hanging thread by which 

 to ascend. In no other place have they attacked my birds as well as 

 my insects. In all parts of South America, in Malacca, in Borneo, 

 they at least were safe on a table or in a box ; but in Macassar and 

 at Aru they are attacked as voraciously as the insects, and even 

 greater precautions are necessary, for the ants establish colonies inside 

 the skins, whence they sally out to devour the eyelids, the base of the 

 beak, &c., and completely destroy the beauty of the specimens. Here, 

 too, it is impossible to keep the insect-boxes free from minute spiders 

 which make webs over and under the specimens, and often gnaw them. 

 Then there are some minute larvae which attack large-bodied Lepi- 

 doptera, mining out their bodies, and reducing them to a mass of dust 

 w^hich dirties every specimen in the box ; and lastly are the mites, 

 which the damp sea air of these islands seems especially adapted to 

 develope. Long and sad experience of this pest has convinced me 

 that there is but one preventative, viz. to dry the specimens rapidly, 

 which it is often impossible to do, and then neither camphor, arsenic, 

 nor cajeput oil, have any effect whatever. Add to this that every- 

 thing must be shut up at night in closely fitting boxes, or the insects 

 will be eaten by cockroaches and the bird-skins by rats, and some 

 little idea may be formed of a collector's troubles in the damp climate 

 of Aru, while living in a half-open bamboo shed, surrounded by his 

 daily increasing stores of beautiful objects, which the most incessant 

 vigilance can hardly preserve from destruction. 



Alfred R. Wallace. 



