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BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
the leaf. The insect’s legs are long and it has a way of tucking them up 
close to the body and contour of the wings. The colour of the outer side 
of the wings is dull green, and a dark green stripe runs right down the middle 
to represent the midrib of the leaf. I am fairly inured to surprises in Nature 
but I have been repeatedly taken in by these leaf butterflies, and to my 
amazement have seen what appeared to be the unmistakable leaves of a tree or 
bush taking to flight and then settling again, so that in a minute the eye failed 
to distinguish between the real and the false leaf. Some of the butterflies of the 
genus Papilio are handsome but they are widespread throughout Africa from 
the west and the north to Natal. There are also large smalt-blue “skippers” 
which are very rich in colouring. It is remarkable that the clouded yellow and 
other species of butterflies more associated in their distribution with Europe 
should be met with on our high mountains. The names of these will be found 
in the appendix. 
The larvae of a small moth named Tinea vastella burrow into the horns 
of dead animals, horns, for instance, that are being collected as specimens. 
Soon a number of grey cocoons begin to protrude from the horn as though 
it were budding in all directions. When these are knocked off a round hole 
remains so that the horn is soon quite spoiled in appearance. 
It might be mentioned that the caterpillars of certain large moths are very 
striking objects. They are nearly if not quite six inches long and covered with 
a flame-coloured plush of long pile. If touched, however, the extremely fine 
silky hairs will sting the hand and cause a rash. The caterpillars of other 
moths are vicious creatures that eject a stinging liquid from their mouths. 
A large carnivorous beetle with powerful nippers of the genus Tefflns is 
remarkable for its beautiful iridescent-violet tint, but it can take a piece 
out of the finger if incautiously handled. Such other beetles as do not attempt 
to get into one’s eyes or drill holes in one’s specimens of horns, or bore through 
one’s rafters and drop the sawdust on the furniture below, or destroy the 
European flowers in one’s garden, or put out the lamp at night, or creep 
into one’s hair or rustle between one’s papers, or eat and befoul one’s supplies 
of grain, or crawl into one’s ear, ought I suppose to be mentioned for their 
minute beauties or extravagant development of horns or wing-cases, but I have 
not the heart to do so. 
The common flea is fortunately not truly indigenous, that is to say, it is not 
found in the bush or in many unsophisticated native villages ; it is chiefly con¬ 
fined to the European settlements and to the dwellings of Arabs or semi-civilised 
natives : though I cannot say if it is wholly absent from any native village. 
The burrowing flea (Sarcopsyllus penetrans ) is quite a new arrival in this 
country. It is a native of South America and the West Indies where it is 
usually known as the “ chigo ” or “jigger,” and as such is supposed to be the 
origin of the sailors’ oath—“Well, I’m jiggered!” In the earlier “fifties” a 
ship from Brazil landed sand ballast at Ambriz on the West Coast of Africa 
and thus introduced the jigger into the soil. The animal slowly spread through 
the sandier regions of Angola and along the West African Coast towards the 
Congo and Sierra Leone. At first it made its way up the Congo slowly, but 
Stanley’s expedition and the spread of civilisation over the Congo Free State 
carried the jigger far and wide. When I first visited the Congo the burrowing flea 
had scarcely got further up the river than Bolobo. Soon afterwards it reached 
the Stanley Falls and thence made its way to Tanganyika in the Arab caravans. 
From Tanganyika it gradually spread southwards to Lake Nyasa and was first 
