88 
Harbingers of the Rainy Season. 
221. Tlie winged males and females ui' the Atta cephalotes supply tlie 
greatest titi-bits. If liere and there an isolated specimen of these large 
creatures lets itself be noticed on the wing the fortunate observer fortli- 
with sounds the alarm through the village, and everyone that can run, 
rushes along with palm-fronds or other bushes, to the well-known hilly 
mounds in the forest which , are now encircled l>y the women. The sharp 
tweezer-like mandibles, with which the females as well as male insects 
are provided, A\ ould scare ain- European, but not the Indians, for without 
bothering al)out their numerous bites the women seize in their already 
bleeding hands every one of the winged ants as they creep out of their 
tunnels. Should a specimen escape there are the boys standing by with 
tlicii- ])alm-leaf or bush ready to knock it down. Once caught the head 
is lorn olf and tlie abdomen, full of a mass of fat, then roasted or boiled: 
so prepared it is regarded as an even greater delicacy than the lar^•a of 
the Calandra pal ma nan. 
222. To these harbingers of the rainy season culled from the order 
Hymenoptera m'ust be added the e'qually innumerable representatives of 
the Coleoptera, particularly those of the famiily Scarabaeidae, of which 
the genera PJianavus and Gopris appeared in immense numbers with the 
tirst rains. Phanneiis Mimas Fab. is as mtuch the most infallible indica- 
tion of the opening of the rainy season as the less beautiful P. Jasius 01. 
Among tlie species of Copris which I collected on this occasion, were 
found two new species: Copris roenosa Erichson and C. qaadrata 
Erichson. The rapidity with which Phanaeus Mimas and P. Jasius 
collect on a dead animal or on a piece of flesh is just as remarkable as 
the quickness with A\ hich they can bury either. The body of tlie biggest 
bird I ever threw away after skinning was sunk in the course of a quarter 
of an hour, notwithstanding the ground was fairly hard. Scarcely is a 
carcass cast aside, than they come flying from all directions like crows, 
settle down close to the welcome carrion, creep under it and begin to 
mine, until after but a short interlude a small heap of loose earth 
indicates the spot where Death l)ecomes the fruitful source of Life. It 
was only very rarely that I noticed P. Mimas on the coast. 
223. The commencing rainy season, however, was indicated not only 
liy sight but also by ear in sounds that had never been previously heard. 
From sunset to sunrise numbers and numbers of tree- and other frogs, 
toads and similar creatures, assisted by goat-suckers and savannah owls 
pitched their melancholy, but more than shrill, notes at us from out of 
Lake Amucu. 
224. Though we had already spent a rainy season on the Orinoco and 
Barima our range of vision had l>een limited owing to the dense virgin 
forest surrounding us : but here the free, open, and extensive savannah 
put no restrictions on our obvservations upon its accompanying 
phenomena. 
225. The hitherto prevailing easterly wind changed suddenly into 
an almost continuous westerly or nortli-Avesterly one, driving in front 
of it the dark and dismal clouds of which some liurst their limits, while 
others rested like black walls on the distant Canuku and Pacaraima 
Ranges. Even if now and again the sun did rise bright and clear of a 
