CARACAS 
309 
Phaeochlaena punctata, Drace, of which the British Museum pos¬ 
sesses nothing but a drawing; it is a small black moth with 
yellow veins on the fore-wings, and yellow black-bordered hind- 
wings ; formerly placed among the Oenochromiidae, it is now put in 
the Eiopsidae. 
“ Other orders ” were not much in evidence, but I took a couple 
of the common "Wasps, Polistes annularis , Linn., and a single 
Polyhia sericea , Oliv., as well as the little Eumenes parvula, Sauss., 
and a very few Beetles : Galhrucella sp., was found by Mrs. Long- 
staff in a water-course ; Odontota sanguinicollis , Fabr., occurred near 
the river; a beautiful Weevil, Platyomus sp., of a pinkish-white 
with turquoise spots, was found in the combe, I suspected it to be 
connected with Castor-oil plants near which it was taken; Mr. Arrow 
says it is not in the National Collection. Mrs. Longstaff, on the way 
back to the city, when hunting for Water Snails, came across Tropi- 
sternus mexicanm , Caste!., apparently an abundant species, as well as 
an unnamed Gyrinus. 
An attempt to reach the primaeval forest high on the mountains 
to the north of Caracas proved a disastrous failure. We climbed on 
horseback up the once fine road to La Gnaira; its cobble paving is 
fast disappearing, and the road itself much cut away by impetuous 
water-courses now left free to work their wild will, since the railway 
built by English engineers has given the Venezuelans an excuse for 
not repairing the old Royal Road. We went up and up, but no signs 
of forest appeared. Meanwhile threatening clouds came down the 
mountain, as if to meet us ; the guide took us a turning towards the 
West and proudly showed, what he thought much better than any 
forest—a somewhat miserable nursery garden. We lunched in gloom 
at about 5000 ft., and then the rain began. There was nothing for 
it but to hurry down again, and we reached Caracas to find the 
streets in the suburbs rushing rivers and ourselves like drowned rats. 
Bag:— Phyciodes anieta , one; Euptychia pharella, But!., one; E. hermes , 
one ; Terms phiale , Cram., a male ; Sphaenogona arbela, a female of 
the usual yellow form, and five specimens of the elegant Oressinoma 
typhia , DM. & H., a delicate Satyrid with a broad white stripe 
across both wings. It was not much consolation to come across a 
colony of the inoffensive Ant Camponotus rufipes, Fabr. 
When climbing up the old La Guaira road I had noticed a 
wooded gorge far below on my right hand and took an early oppor¬ 
tunity to investigate it. It proved to be a waterworks conservation 
and was partly enclosed. The collecting ground may be said to be 
from 3500 to 3700 ft. above sea-level. The shaded path was just the 
