352 MY LIFE [Chap. 



day without getting a new one. At Malacca and Singapore 

 I collected about i6o species, at Sarawak 290, but as only 

 about fifty from the former places occurred at the latter, my 

 Longicorns must now reach about 400 species. ... As to 

 size, I have only about thirty species which exceed an inch in 

 length, the majority being from one half to three quarters 

 of an inch, while a considerable number are two or three 

 lines only. I see you say you must have near 500 species 

 of Longicorns ; but I do not know if this refers to Ega 

 only, or to your whole South American collections. 



" The Geodephaga, always rare in the tropics, we must 

 expect to be still more so in a level forest country so near the 

 equator, yet I have found more species than I anticipated — 

 as nearly as I can reckon, a hundred — twenty-four being 

 Cicindelidae (tiger beetles) of various groups. 



Lamellicorns are very scarce, about one hundred and 

 forty species in all, of which twenty-five are Cetoniidae, all 

 rare, and about the same number of Lucanidae. Elaters are 

 rather plentiful, but with few exceptions small and obscure. 

 I have one hundred and forty species, one nearly three inches 

 long, and several of one and a half inch. The Buprestidae 

 are exceedingly beautiful, but the larger and finer species are 

 very rare. I have one hundred and ten species, of which half 

 are under one-third of an inch long, though one, Catoxantha 

 bicoloVy is two and a half inches. Two genera of Cleridse are 

 rather abundant, others rare ; but I have obtained about fifty 

 species, which, compared with the very few previously known, 

 is very satisfactory. Of the remaining groups, in which I 

 took less interest, I have not accurately noted the number of 

 species. 



" The individual abundance of beetles is not, however, so 

 large as the number of species would indicate. I hardly 

 collect on an average more than fifty beetles a day, in which 

 number there will be from thirty to forty species. Often, in 

 fact, twenty or thirty beetles are as much as I can scrape 

 together, even when giving my whole attention to them, for 

 butterflies are too scarce to distract it. Of the other orders 

 of insects, I have no accurate notes ; the species, however, of 



