THE SALAGUBONG GONG, A FILIPINO INSECT TOY 
By Charles T. Brues 
Harvard University 
While staying in the hills above Dumaguete on the island of 
Negros in the Philippines we had the opportunity to see in 
operation a very interesting and ingenious mechanical toy made 
and operated by the native children. 
The motive power is furnished by a good-sized melolonthid 
beetle somewhat larger, but quite similar to our North Ameri- 
can species of Phyllophaga, and still more like the common 
European dor beetle, Melolontha vulgaris. The specimens used 
by the children belong to two species. Most of them were Leu- 
copholis pulverulentus Burm. and one belongs to another some- 
what closely related species, Lepidiota punctum Blanch. Doubt- 
less any other similar, lubberly lamellicorn would serve equall} T 
well. Beetles of this type are abundant in the region, and in 
general, together with other large phyllophagous lamellicorns 
are known by the Visayan name, Salagubong. The “gong,” 
as operated by the beetle is one of the five-gallon kerosene or 
gasoline tins which consistently carry the flavor of civilization 
ever} T where into the furthest reaches of the tropics. We have 
seen these tins used for a multiplicity of purposes, and may now 
add still another which seems never to have been called to the 
attention of entomologists. 
Aside from the beetle and the can, two plant materials are 
used in the construction of the gong: four thin sticks of bamboo, 
each about two feet in length, and three strands of tenacious 
fibre taken from the leaf-sheaths of the abaca plant, Musa teoc- 
tilis, which is grown extensively in the region for the commercial 
production of Manila hemp. 
As shown in the accompanying illustration, two of the bamboo 
sticks are implanted in the ground and connected near their 
tops by a strand of fibre securely tied at each end, forming a 
miniature pair of football goal posts. The third stick is simi- 
larly fixed in the ground to form the apex of a triangle. One 
end of the fourth bamboo stick is now fastened to the trans- 
verse abaca fibre by a tight abaca loop, and suspended near 
