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WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA 
Mr. W. L. Distant says is structurally distinct from any species 
represented in the British Museum. Oncopeltus cingulifer, Stal, 
which I had also taken near Caracas, was netted flying high above 
St. Ann’s. Lastly, the brown fetid JDinocoris piceus, Beauv.—a 
creature with an awe-inspiring name 1 —was attracted by the electric 
light. I have not permission to publish the details of Mrs. LongstafFs 
researches at the Colonial Hotel into the habits of insects of this 
order (alluded to above), but I have no reason to suppose that she 
found the dim light of candles in any way attractive, if anything the 
reverse. 
Tobago. 2 
April 3rd—10th, 1907. 
A glance at the map shows that this island stands outside the 
crescent of the Lesser Antilles, or Windward Islands, about 20 miles 
to the north-east of Trinidad in lat. 11° 15' N. The southernmost of 
the Windward Islands proper, Grenada, is about 70 miles W.N.W. 
of Tobago. It is therefore pretty obvious that, geographically 
speaking, Tobago belongs to South America rather than to the West 
Indies. The mountains of the north-east coast of Venezuela, con¬ 
sisting for the most part of clay slates and schists believed to be of 
Silurian age, run by way of the peninsula of Paria and the islets of 
the Bocas, along the northern coast of Trinidad, and would appear to 
be prolonged to the eastern half of Tobago. 
In area Tobago is about equal to the county of London, comprising 
but 114 square miles, and therefore only about three-fourths of the size 
of the Isle of Wight, and only one-fifteenth of that of its neighbour. 
(Trinidad, area 1754 square miles = Lancashire.) The south-western 
portion of the island, which is low and more or less flat, is formed of 
coralline limestone, and is completely cultivated. The central and 
north-eastern portions are hilly, rising to 2000 ft., and in large part 
covered with forest, some of it virgin, but much of it of second 
growth, or “rastrajo.” The destruction of the forest is proceeding 
apace. 
My stay was limited to eight days, three of which, thanks to the 
hospitality of the Hon. H. L. Thornton and Mr. G. H. Sworder were 
spent at their estate, “Cocoa Wattie,” the remainder near the coast. 
We found the neighbourhood of Scarborough, the capital, for 
some miles on either side of the town very dry and parched, though 
1 Pitch-black terrible bug. 
2 The greater part of this section appeared in the Transactions of the Entomological 
Society of London, 1908, pp. 58-57. 
