CHAP. XXXIX.] OF THE PAPUAN- ISLANDS, 



57D 



several fine blue \vee\Hls of tlie genus Etipholus, are 

 perhapg the most conspicuous. Almost all tlie other 

 orders furaish us with large or extraordinaiy forms. The 

 curious Ivoniftd Hies have already been mentioned; and 

 amoiig the Orthoptera the great sbidded grasshoppers 

 are the most remarkable. The species here figured (Mega- 

 lodon euaifer) has the thorax covered by a large triangular 

 horny shield, two and a half inches long, whh sen-ated 

 edges, a somewhat wavy, hollow surface, and a faint 

 median line, so as veiy closely to resemble a leaf. The 

 glossy wing'coverta (when fully expanded, more than nine 

 inches acrosa) are of a fine green colour and so beautifully 

 veined as to imitate closeij some of the large shLaing 

 tropical leaves. The body is short, and terminated in the 

 female by a long cnr\^ed sword-like ovipositor (not seen 

 in the cut), and the legs are all long and Btrongly-spiiujd. 

 These insects are sluggish in their motions, depending 

 for safety on their resemblance to foliage, their horny 

 shield and wing-coverts, and their spiny legs. 



The large islands to the east of New Guinea are very 

 little knowTi, but the occurrence of crimson lories, which 

 are quite absent from Australia, and of cockatoos allied to 

 those of Xew Guinea and the Moluccas, shows that they 

 belong to the Papuan group ; and we are thus able to 

 define the Malay Archipelago as e.Ktending east^vard to the 

 Solomon's Islands. New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, 

 on the other hand, seem more nearly allied to AustraUa ; 

 and the rest of the islands of the Pacific, though very poor 

 in all forms of life, possess a few peculiarities whif h 

 compel us to class them as a separate group. Although 

 as a matter of convenience I have always separated the 

 Moluccas as a distinct zoological group from New Guinea, 

 I have at the same time pointed out that its fauna was 

 chiefly derived from that island, just as that of Timor was 

 chiefly derived from Austraha, If we were dividing the 

 Australian region for zoological purposes alone, we should 

 form three great groups : one comprising Austraha, Titnor, 

 and Tasmania; another New Guinea, with the islantls 

 from Bourn to the Solomon's group; and the thud com- 

 prising the greater part of the Pacific Islands. 



The relation of the New Guinea fauna to that of 



r F 2 



