The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

xsxiv] NEW GUINEA.—DOREY. 383companions, to bathe ; otherwise I saw little of them, and wasnot disturbed by visitors so much as I had expected to be. Aboutthis time the weather set in pretty fine, but neither birds norinsects became much more abundant, and new birds were veryscarce. None of the Bii'ds of Paradise except the common onewere ever met with, and we were still searching in vain forseveral of the fine birds which Lesson had obtained here. Insectswere tolerably abundant, but were not on the average so fine asthose of Amboyna, and I reluctantly came to the conclusion thatDorey was not a good collecting locality. Butterflies were veryscarce, and were mostly the same as those which I liad obtainedat Aru.Among the insects of other orders, the most curious and novelwere a group of horned flies, of which I obtained four distinctspecies, settling on fallen trees and decaying trunks. TheseElaphomia cenicornis.Elaphomia waUacei.E. brevicornis. E. alcicorms.remarkable insects, which have been described by Mr. W. W.Saunders as a new genus, under the name of Elaphomia ordeer-flies, are about lialf an inch long, slender bodied, and withvery long legs, which they draw together so as to elevate tlieirbodies high above the surface they are standing upon. Thefront pair of legs are much shorter, and these are often stretcheddirectly forwards, so as to resemble antennae. The horns springfrom beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation ot thelower part of the orbit. In the largest and most singular species,named Elaphomia cervicornis or the stag-horned deer-fly, thesehorns are nearly as long as the body, having two branches, wthtwo small snags near their bifurcation, so as to resemble thehorns of a stag. They are black, with the tips pale, while thebody and legs are yellowish brown, and the eyes (when alive)violet and green. The next species (Elaphomia wallacei) is of a