404 



INSECTS. 



[Chap. XII. 



knows ; whither going no one can tell. 1 As day declines, 

 the moths issue from their retreats, the crickets add 

 their shrill voices to swell the din ; and when darkness 

 descends, the eye is charmed with the millions of 

 emerald lamps lighted up by the fire-flies amidst the 

 surrounding gloom. 



As yet no attempt has been made to describe the 

 insects of Ceylon systematically, much less to enumerate 

 the prodigous number of species that abound in every 

 locality. Occasional observers have, from time to time, 

 contributed notices of particular families to the Scientific 

 Associations of Europe, but their papers remain un- 

 digested, and the time has not yet arrived for the pre- 

 paration of an Entomology of the island. 



What Darwin remarks of the Coleoptera of Brazil is 

 nearly as applicable to the same order of insects in 

 Ceylon: "The number of minute and obscurely co- 

 loured beetles is exceedingly great; the cabinets of 

 Europe can as yet, with partial exceptions, boast only 

 of the larger species from tropical climates, and it is 

 sufficient to disturb the composure of an entomologist 

 to look forward to the future dimensions of a catalogue 

 with any pretensions to completeness." 2 M. Nietner, a 

 German entomologist, who has spent some years in 

 Ceylon, has recently published, in one of the local 



1 The butterflies I have seen in their flight is -ultimately directed 



these wonderful migrations in Cey- to Adam's Peak, and that their 



Ion were mostly Callidryas Hilarioe, pilgrimage ends on reaching the 



C. Alcmeone, and C. Pyranthe, with sacred mountain. A friend of 



straggling individuals of the genus mine travelling from Kandy to 



Euploea, E. Coras, and E. Prothoe. Kornegalle, drove for nine miles 



Their passage took place in April through a cloud of white butter- 



and May, generally in a north- flies, which were passing across 



easterly direction. The natives the road by which he went, 



have a superstitious belief that 2 Nat Journal, p. 39. 



