The Next Day (October 16th) I Went Beyond The Swamp, And Found A
Place Where A New Clearing Was Being
Made in the virgin forest.
It was a long and hot walk, and the search among the fallen
trunks and
Branches was very fatiguing, but I was rewarded by
obtaining about seventy distinct species of beetles, of which at
least a dozen were new to me, and many others rare and
interesting. I have never in my life seen beetles so abundant as
they were on this spot. Some dozen species of good-sized golden
Buprestidae, green rose-chafers (Lomaptera), and long-horned
weevils (Anthribidae), were so abundant that they rose up in
swarms as I walked along, filling the air with a loud buzzing
hum. Along with these, several fine Longicorns were almost
equally common, forming such au assemblage as for once to realize
that idea of tropical luxuriance which one obtains by looking
over the drawers of a well-filled cabinet. On the under sides of
the trunks clung numbers of smaller or more sluggish Longicorns,
while on the branches at the edge of the clearing others could be
detected sitting with outstretched antenna ready to take flight
at the least alarm. It was a glorious spot, and one which will
always live in my memory as exhibiting the insect-life of the
tropics in unexampled luxuriance. For the three following days I
continued to visit this locality, adding each time many new
species to my collection-the following notes of which may be
interesting to entomologists.
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