If I Was Seem Going
Into The Forest Anywhere In The Direction Of The Mountains, The
Little Boys Of The Village Would Shout After Me, "Arfaki!
Arfaki?" Just As They Did After Lesson Nearly Forty Years Before.
On the 15th of May the Dutch war-steamer Etna arrived; but, as
the coals had gone, it was
Obliged to stay till they came back.
The captain knew when the coalship was to arrive, and how long it
was chartered to stay at Dorey, and could have been back in time,
but supposed it would wait for him, and so did not hurry himself.
The steamer lay at anchor just opposite my house, and I had the
advantage of hearing the half-hourly bells struck, which was very
pleasant after the monotonous silence of the forest. The captain,
doctor, engineer, and some other of the officers paid me visits;
the servants came to the brook to wash clothes, and the son of
the Prince of Tidore, with one or two companions, to bathe;
otherwise I saw little of them, and was not disturbed by visitors
so much as I had expected to be. About this time the weather set
in pretty fine, but neither birds nor insects became much more
abundant, and new birds -were very scarce. None of the Birds of
Paradise except the common one were ever met with, and we were
still searching in vain for several of the fine birds which
Lesson had obtained here. Insects were tolerably abundant, but
were not on the average so fine as those of Amboyna, and I
reluctantly came to the conclusion that Dorey was not a good
collecting locality. Butterflies were very scarce, arid were
mostly the same as those which I had obtained at Aru.
Among the insects of other orders, the most curious and novel
were a group of horned flies, of which I obtained four distinct
species, settling on fallen trees and decaying trunks. These
remarkable insects, which have been described by Mr. W. W.
Saunders as a new genus, under the name of Elaphomia or deer-
flies, are about half an inch long, slender-bodied, and with very
long legs, which they draw together so as to elevate their bodies
high above the surface they are standing upon. The front pair of
legs are much shorter, and these are often stretched directly
forwards, so as to resemble antenna. The horns spring from
beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation of the lower part
of the orbit. In the largest and most singular species, named
Elaphomia cervicornis or the stag-horned deer-fly, these horns
are nearly as long as the body, having two branches, with two
small snags near their bifurcation, so as to resemble the horns
of a stag. They are black, with the tips pale, while the body and
legs are yellowish brown, and the eyes (when alive) violet and
green. The next species (Elaphomia wallacei) is of a dark brown
colour, banded and spotted with yellow. The horns are about one-
third the length of the insect, broad, flat, and of an elongated
triangular foam. They are of a beautiful pink colour, edged with
black, and with a pale central stripe. The front part of the head
is also pink, and the eyes violet pink, with a green stripe
across them, giving the insect a very elegant and singular
appearance. The third species (Elaphomia alcicornis, the elk-
horned deer-fly) is a little smaller than the two already
described, but resembling in colour Elaphomia wallacei. The horns
are very remarkable, being suddenly dilated into a flat plate,
strongly toothed round the outer margin, and strikingly
resembling the horns of the elk, after which it has been named.
They are of a yellowish colour, margined with brown, and tipped
with black on the three upper teeth. The fourth species
(Elaphomia brevicornis, the short-horned deer-fly) differs
considerably from the rest. It is stouter in form, of a nearly
black colour, with a yellow ring at the base of the abdomen; the
wings have dusky stripes, and the head is compressed and dilated
laterally, with very small flat horns; which are black with a
pale centre, and look exactly like the rudiment of the horns of
the two preceding species. None of the females have any trace of
the horns, ane Mr. Saunders places in the same genus a species
which has no horns in either sex (Elaphomia polita). It is of a
shining black colour, and resembles Elaphomia cervicornis in
form, size, and general appearance. The figures above given
represent these insects of their natural size and in
characteristic attitudes.
The natives seldom brought me anything. They are poor creatures,
and, rarely shoot a bird, pig, or kangaroo, or even the sluggish
opossum-like Cuscus. The tree-kangaroos are found here, but must
be very scarce, as my hunters, although out daily in the forest,
never once saw them. Cockatoos, lories, and parroquets were
really the only common birds. Even pigeons were scarce, and in
little variety, although we occasionally got the fine crown
pigeon, which was always welcome as an addition to our scantily
furnished larder.
Just before the steamer arrived I had wounded my ankle by
clambering among the trunks and branches of fallen trees (which
formed my best hunting grounds for insects), and, as usual with
foot wounds in this climate, it turned into an obstinate ulcer,
keeping me in the house for several days. When it healed up it
was followed by an internal inflammation of the foot, which by
the doctor's advice I poulticed incessantly for four or five
days, bringing out a severe inflamed swelling on the tendon above
the heel. This had to be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with
ointments and poultices for several weeks, till I was almost
driven to despair, - for the weather was at length fine, and I was
tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and
thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of insects that I
ought to be getting every day.
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