Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 42

_The Wood-carrying Moth._--There is another family of insects, the singular habits of which will not fail to attract the traveller in the cultivated tracts of Ceylon--these are moths of the genus _Oiketicus_,[1] of which the females are devoid of wings, and some possess no articulated feet; the larvae construct for themselves cases, which they suspend to a branch frequently of the pomegranate,[2]

surrounding them with the stems of leaves, and thorns or pieces of twigs bound together by threads, till the whole presents the appearance of a bundle of rods about an inch and a half long; and, from the resemblance of this to a Roman fasces, one African species has obtained the name of "Lictor." The German entomologists denominated the group _Sack-trager_, the Singhalese call them _Dalmea kattea_ or "billets of firewood," and regard the inmates as human beings, who, as a punishment for stealing wood in some former stage of existence, have been condemned to undergo a metempsychosis under the form of these insects.

[Footnote 1: _Eumeta_, Wlk.]

[Footnote 2: The singular instincts of a species of Thecla, _Dipsas Isocrates_, Fab., in connection with the fruit of the pomegranate, were fully described by Mr. Westwood, in a paper read before the Entomological Society of London in 1835.]

The male, at the close of the pupal rest, escapes from one end of this singular covering, but the female makes it her dwelling for life; moving about with it at pleasure, and entrenching herself within it, when alarmed, by drawing together the purse-like aperture at the open end. Of these remarkable creatures there are five ascertained species in Ceylon.

_Psyche Doubledaii_, Westw.; _Metisa plana_, Walker; _Eumeta Cramerii_, Westw.; _E. Templetonii_, Westw.; and _Cryptothelea consorta_, Temp.

All the other tribes of minute _Lepidoptera_ have abundant representatives in Ceylon; some of them most attractive from the great beauty of their markings and colouring. The curious little split-winged moth (_Pterophorus_) is frequently seen in the cinnamon gardens and the vicinity of the fort, resting in the noonday heat in the cool gra.s.s shaded by the coco-nut topes. Three species have been captured, all characterised by the same singular feature of having the wings fan-like, separated nearly their entire length into detached sections resembling feathers in the pinions of a bird expanded for flight.

h.o.m.oPTERA. _Cicada._--Of the _h.o.m.optera_, the one which will most frequently arrest attention is the cicada, which, resting high up on the bark of a tree, makes the forest re-echo with a long-sustained noise so curiously resembling that of a cutler's wheel that the creature which produces it has acquired the highly-appropriate name of the "knife-grinder."

HEMIPTERA. _Bugs._--On the shrubs in his compound the newly-arrived traveller will be attracted by an insect of a pale green hue and delicately-thin configuration, which, resting from its recent flight, composes its scanty wings, and moves languidly along the leaf. But experience will teach him to limit his examination to a respectful view of its att.i.tudes; it is one of a numerous family of bugs, (some of them most attractive[1] in their colouring,) which are inoffensive if unmolested, but if touched or irritated, exhale an odour that, once perceived, is never after forgotten.

[Footnote 1: Such as _Cantuo ocellatus, Leptopelis Marginalis, Callidea Stockerius_, &c. &c. Of the aquatic species, the gigantic _Belostoma Indic.u.m_ cannot escape notice, attaining a size of nearly three inches.]

APHANIPTERA. _Fleas._--Fleas are equally numerous, and may be seen in myriads in the dust of the streets or skipping in the sunbeams which fall on the clay floors of the cottages. The dogs, to escape them, select for their sleeping places spots where a wood fire has been previously kindled; and here p.r.o.ne on the white ashes, their stomachs close to the earth, and their hind legs extended behind, they repose in comparative coolness, and bid defiance to their persecutors.

DIPTERA. _Mosquitoes._--But of all the insect pests that beset an unseasoned European the most provoking by far are the truculent mosquitoes.[1] Even in the midst of endurance from their onslaughts one cannot but be amused by the ingenuity of their movements; as if aware of the risk incident to an open a.s.sault, a favourite mode of attack is, when concealed by a table, to a.s.sail the ankles through the meshes of the blocking, or the knees which are ineffectually protected by a fold of Russian duck. When you are reading, a mosquito will rarely settle on that portion of your hand which is within range of your eyes, but cunningly stealing by the underside of the book fastens on the wrist or finger, and noiselessly inserts his proboscis there. I have tested the cla.s.sical expedient recorded by Herodotus, who states that the fishermen inhabiting the fens of Egypt cover their beds with their nets, knowing that the mosquitoes, although they bite through linen robes, will not venture though a net.[2] But, notwithstanding the opinion of Spence,[3]

that nets with meshes an inch square will effectually exclude them, I have been satisfied by painful experience that (if the theory is not altogether fallacious) at least the modern mosquitoes of Ceylon are uninfluenced by the same considerations which restrained those of the Nile under the successors of Cambyses.

[Footnote 1: _Culex laniger_? Wied. In Kandy Mr. Thwaites finds _C.

fusca.n.u.s, C. circ.u.mvolens_, &c., and one with a most formidable hooked proboscis, to which he has a.s.signed the appropriate name _C. Regius_.]

[Footnote 2: HERODOTUS, _Euterpe_, xcv.]

[Footnote 3: KIRBY and SPENCE'S _Entomology_, letter iv.]

_List of Ceylon Insects._

For the following list of the insects of the island, and the remarks prefixed to it, I am indebted to Mr. F. Walker, by whom it has been prepared after a careful inspection of the collections made by Dr.

Templeton, Mr. E.L. Layard, and others; as well as those in the British Museum and in the Museum of the East India Company.

"A short notice of the aspect of the Island will afford the best means of accounting, in some degree, for its entomological Fauna: first, as it is an island, and has a mountainous central region, the tropical character of its productions, as in most other cases, rather diminishes, and somewhat approaches that of higher lat.i.tudes.

"The coast-region of Ceylon, and fully one-third of its northern part, have a much drier atmosphere than that of the rest of its surface; and their climate and vegetation are nearly similar to those of the Carnatic, with which this island may have been connected at no very remote period.[1] But if, on the contrary, the land in Ceylon is gradually rising, the difference of its Fauna from that of Central Hindostan is less remarkable. The peninsula of the Dekkan might then be conjectured to have been nearly or wholly separated from the central part of Hindostan, and confined to the range of mountains along the eastern coast; the insect-fauna of which is as yet almost unknown, but will probably be found to have more resemblance to that of Ceylon than to the insects of northern and western India--just as the insect-fauna of Malaya appears more to resemble the similar productions of Australasia than those of the more northern continent.

[Footnote 1: On the subject of this conjecture see _ante_, Vol. I. Pt.

I, ch. i. p. 7.]

"Mr. Layard's collection was partly formed in the dry northern province of Ceylon; and among them more Hindostan insects are to be observed than among those collected by Dr. Templeton, and found wholly in the district between Colombo and Kandy. According to this view the faunas of the Neilgherry Mountains, of Central Ceylon, of the peninsula of Malacca, and of Australasia would be found to form one group;--while those of Northern Ceylon, of the western Dekkan, and of the level parts of Central Hindostan would form another of more recent origin. The insect-fauna of the Carnatic is also probably similar to that of the lowlands of Ceylon; but it is still unexplored. The regions of Hindostan in which species have been chiefly collected, such as Bengal, Silhet, and the Punjaub, are at the distance of from 1,300 to 1,600 miles from Ceylon, and therefore the insects of the latter are fully as different from those of the above regions as they are from those of Australasia, to which Ceylon is as near in point of distance, and agrees more with regard to lat.i.tude.

"Dr. Hagen has remarked that he believes the fauna of the mountains of Ceylon to be quite different from that of the plains and of the sh.o.r.es.

The south and west districts have a very moist climate, and as their vegetation is like that of Malabar, their insect-fauna will probably also resemble that of the latter region.

"The insects mentioned in the following list are thus distributed:--

Order COLEOPTERA.

"The recorded species of _Cicindelidoe_ inhabit the plains or the coast country of Ceylon, and several of them are also found in Hindostan.

"Many of the species of _Carabidoe_ and of _Staphylinidoe_, especially those collected by Mr. Thwaites, near Kandy, and by M. Nietner at Colombo, have much resemblance to the insects of these two families in North Europe; in the _Scydmoenidoe,_ _Ptiliadoe, Phalacridoe, Nitidulidoe, Colydiadoe_, and _Lathridiadoe_ the northern form is still more striking, and strongly contrasts with the tropical forms of the gigantic _Copridoe, Buprestidoe_, and _Cerambycidoe_, and with the _Elateridoe, Lampyridoe, Tenebrionidoe, Helopidoe, Meloidoe, Curculionidoe, Prionidoe, Cerambycidoe, Lamiidoe_, and _Endomychidoe_.

"The _Copridoe, Dynastidoe, Melolonthidoe, Cetoniadoe_, and _Pa.s.salidoe_ are well represented on the plains and on the coast, and the species are mostly of a tropical character.

"The _Hydrophilidoe_ have a more northern aspect, as is generally the case with aquatic species.

"The order _Strepsiptera_ is here considered as belonging to the _Mordellidoe_, and is represented by the genus _Myrmecolax_, which is peculiar, as yet, to Ceylon.

"In the _Curculionidoe_ the single species of _Apion_ will recall to mind the great abundance of that genus in North Europe.

"The _Prionidoe_ and the two following families have been investigated by Mr. Pascoe, and the _Hispidoe_, with the five following families, by Mr. Baly; these two gentlemen are well acquainted with the above tribes of beetles, and kindly supplied me with the names of the Ceylon species.

Order ORTHOPTERA.

"These insects in Ceylon have mostly a tropical aspect. The _Physapoda_, which will probably be soon incorporated with them, are likely to be numerous, though only one species has as yet been noticed.

Order NEUROPTERA.

"The list here given is chiefly taken from the catalogue published by Dr. Hagen, and containing descriptions of the species named by him or by M. Nietner. They were found in the most elevated parts of the island, near Rambodde, and Dr. Hagen informs me that not less than 500 species have been noticed in Ceylon, but that they are not yet recorded, with the exception of the species here enumerated. It has been remarked that the _Trichoptera_ and other aquatic _Neuroptera_ are less local than the land species, owing to the more equable temperature of the habitation of their larvae, and on account of their being often conveyed along the whole length of rivers. The species of _Psocus_ in the list are far more numerous than those yet observed in any other country, with the exception of Europe.

Order HYMENOPTERA.

"In this order the _Formicidoe_ and the _Poneridoe_ are very numerous, as they are in other damp and woody tropical countries. Seventy species of ants have been observed, but as yet few of them have been named. The various other families of aculeate _Hymenoptera_ are doubtless more abundant than the species recorded indicate, and it may be safely reckoned that the parasitic _Hymenoptera_ in Ceylon far exceed one thousand species in number, though they are yet only known by means of about two dozen kinds collected at Kandy by Mr. Thwaites.

Order LEPIDOPTERA.

"The fauna of Ceylon is much better known in this order than in any other of the insect tribes, but as yet the _Lepidoptera_ alone in their cla.s.s afford materials for a comparison of the productions of Ceylon with those of Hindostan and of Australasia; 932 species have been collected by Dr. Templeton and by Mr. Layard in the central, western, and northern parts of the island. All the families, from the _Papilionidoe_ to the _Tineidoe_, abound, and numerous species and several genera appear, as yet, to be peculiar to the island. As Ceylon is situate at the entrance to the eastern regions, the list in this volume will suitably precede the descriptive catalogues of the heterocerous _Lepidoptera_ of Hindostan, Java, Borneo, and of other parts of Australasia, which are being prepared for publication. In some of the heterocerous families several species are common to Ceylon and to Australasia, and in various cases the faunas of Ceylon and of Australasia seem to be more similar than those of Ceylon and of Hindostan. The long intercourse between those two regions may have been the means of conveying some species from one to the other. Among the _Pyralites, Hymenia recurvalis_ inhabits also the West Indies, South America, West Africa, Hindostan, China, Australasia, Australia, and New Zealand; and its food-plant is probably some vegetable which is cultivated in all those regions; so also _Desmia afflictalis_ is found in Sierra Leone, Ceylon, and China.

Order DIPTERA.

"About fifty species were observed by Dr. Templeton, but most of those here recorded were collected by Mr. Thwaites at Kandy, and have a great likeness to North European species.

"The mosquitoes are very annoying on account of their numbers, as might be expected from the moisture and heat of the climate. _Culex laniger_ is the coast species, and the other kinds here mentioned are from Kandy.

Humboldt observed that in some parts of South America each stream had its peculiar mosquitoes, and it yet remains to be seen whether the gnats in Ceylon are also thus restricted in their habitation. The genera _Sciara, Cecidomyia_, and _Simulium_, which abound so exceedingly in temperate countries, have each one representative species in the collection made by Mr. Thwaites. Thus an almost new field remains for the Entomologist in the study of the yet unknown Singhalese Diptera, which must be very numerous.

Order HEMIPTERA.

"The species of this order in the list are too few and too similar to those of Hindustan to need any particular mention. _Lecanium coffeoe_ may be noticed, on account of its infesting the coffee plant, as its name indicates, and the ravages of other species of the genus will be remembered, from the fact that one of them, in other regions, has put a stop to the cultivation of the orange as an article of commerce.