350 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



entomology, and especially giving my impressions of the 

 comparative richness of the two countries. As this com- 

 parison is of interest not only to entomologists but to all 

 students of the geographical distribution of animals, I give it 

 here almost entire. The letter is dated April 30, 1856: — 



I must first inform you that I have just received the 

 Zoologist containing your letters up to September 14, 1855 

 (Ega), which have interested me greatly, and have almost 

 made me long to be again on the Amazon, even at the cost 

 of leaving the unknown Spice Islands still unexplored. I 

 have been here since February waiting for a vessel to Macassar 

 (Celebes), a country I look forward to with the greatest 

 anxiety and with expectations of vast treasures in the insect 

 world. Malacca, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo form but one 

 zoological province, the majority of the species in all classes 

 of animals being common to two or more of these countries. 

 There is decidedly less difference between them than between 

 Para and Santarem or Barra. I have therefore as yet only 

 visited the best known portion of the Archipelago, and con- 

 sider that I am now about to commence my real work. I 

 have spent six months in Malacca and Singapore, and fifteen 

 months in Borneo (Sarawak), and have therefore got a good 

 idea of what this part of the Archipelago is like. Compared 

 with the Amazon valley, the great and striking feature here 

 is the excessive poverty of the Diurnal Lepidoptera. The 

 glorious Heliconidae are represented here by a dozen or 

 twenty species of generally obscure-coloured Euplaeas, the 

 Nymphalidae containing nothing comparable with Epicalias, 

 Callitheas, Catagrammas, etc., either in variety or abundance 

 to make up for their want of brilliancy. A few species of 

 Adolias, Limentis, and Charaxes are the most notable forms. 

 The Satyridse have nothing to be placed by the side of the 

 lovely Hgeteras of the Amazon. Your glorious Erycinidae 

 are represented by half a dozen rather inconspicuous species, 

 and even the Lyc^nidae, though more numerous and com- 

 prising some lovely species, do not come up to the Theclas 

 of Para. Even the dull Hesperidae are almost wanting here, 

 for I do not think I have yet exceeded a dozen species of 



