trunks in Batchian. 5. An undescribed species of Arachnobas, a curious genus of
weevils peculiar to the Moluccas and New Guinea, and remarkable for their long
legs, and their habit of often sitting on leaves, and turning rapidly round the edge
to the under-surface when disturbed. It was found in Gilolo. All these insects are
represented of the natural size.
Like the birds, the insects of the Moluccas show a decided affinity with those
of New Guinea rather than with the productions of the great western islands of
the Archipelago, but the difference in form and structure between the
productions of the east and west is not nearly so marked here as in birds. This is
probably due to the more immediate dependence of insects on climate and
vegetation, and the greater facilities for their distribution in the varied stages of
egg, pupa, and perfect insect. This has led to a general uniformity in the insect-
life of the whole Archipelago, in accordance with the general uniformity of its
climate and vegetation; while on the other hand the great susceptibility of the
insect organization to the action of external conditions has led to infinite detailed
modifications of form and colour, which have in many cases given a
considerable diversity to the productions of adjacent islands.
Owing to the great preponderance among the birds, of parrots, pigeons,
kingfishers, and sunbirds, almost all of gay or delicate colours, and many
adorned with the most gorgeous plumage, and to the numbers of very large and
showy butterflies which are almost everywhere to be met with, the forests of the
Moluccas offer to the naturalist a very striking example of the luxuriance and
beauty of animal life in the tropics. Yet the almost entire absence of Mammalia,
and of such wide-spread groups of birds as woodpeckers, thrushes, jays, tits, and
pheasants, must convince him that he is in a part of the world which has, in
reality but little in common with the great Asiatic continent, although an
unbroken chain of islands seems to link them to it.