Entomologists Monthly Magazine Apr & May 1919 pp.70-751 ENTOMOLOGY IN SARAWAK, BORNEO. BY G. E. BRYANT, F.E.S.

2 These few notes are the result of six months' collecting, chiefly Coleoptera, in Sarawak, Borneo, from December 3rd, 1913-June 10th, 1914. The bulk of my work was done on Mt. Matang and at Quop. I also made expeditions to Lundu, Puak, and Mt. Merinjak. On my arrival in Kuching, Sarawak, Major J. C. Moulton3, late of the Sarawak Museum, helped me in every way and engaged for me two good Sea Dayak collectors and a Chinese cook, without which faithful bodyguard I should have been helpless, and I should like to state here how greatly I am indebted to him for the success of my expedition. I arrived on Mt. Matang on December 3rd, 1913, and collected there till February 15th, 1914, living at an altitude of 1000 feet, with jungle above and below. These months are probably all bad for collecting at an altitude of anything over that elevation during the rainy season, the mountaintop, about 3200 feet, being then frequently veiled in mist, and from January 11th-February 15th twenty more or less very wet days were recorded in my diary. The best collecting-day's here, in point of number of species of Coleoptera obtained, were spent at a clearing which my Dayaks made on a ridge at an elevation of about 2000 feet. On December 24th, two days after making the clearing, we took 87 species, and on the 25th 75 species; and then the rains came, and I never did very much more there, as it was too high and in the mist. It is a sight not to be missed to see the Dayaks get to work to make a clearing, with their small native axes. They start half cutting through the number of trees they wish to fell, and then drop one giant in such a way that it brings down the rest at once. It is heartbreaking to hear the tearing of limbs and the terrific crash, but glorious to let the sun into the gloom of the forest, and a clearing of this sort can be visited every day in fine weather and new species taken all the time. On February 9th I at last found a flowering-tree which it was possible to reach, growing on the edge of a clearing at an altitude of about 1000 feet a decidedly difficult thing to find in junglecountry. The tree was Vernonia arborea (Order Compositae), then covered with white fluffy flowers. I worked this tree for five days, and it produced 80 species I had not met with before, in spite of the weather being bad, and I had already up to that date taken not less than 1040 species of Coleoptera. It produced twenty-one Cetoniidae, the majority small but very interesting Valginae, and a few species of Macronota M. egregia Gur.4, M. picta Gur., M. marmorata Wallace5, and M. elongata G. & P.6 I rigged up my net with a very long handle, and it was something like hard labour wielding this from about 7.30 A.M.-3 P.M. A Dayak climbed the tree to stir things up, as most of the interesting forms seemed to frequent the top, and it was rather anxious work watching him, brandishing his net walking about on the most appalling-looking branches, and I was thankful there was no "Employers' Liability Act" in Sarawak. The tree was alive with butterflies and bees, and I captured a good number of Hymenoptera. What struck me most was that not a single Buprestid was taken or seen, similar collecting in Australia producing scores of Buprestidae, mostly Stigmodera, such flowering-trees as Angophora, Eucalyptus, etc., being especially attractive there; but I found later that the habits of the Bornean Buprestidae were quite different. Catoxantha opulenta Gory7, C rajah Gestro8, Demochroa lacordairei Thoms.9, Chrysochroa aurotibialis Deyr.10, C.fulminans F.11, and their allies, were taken on young fresh foliage; but the species of the genera Chrysobothris, Belionota, and Philocteanus flew about freshly-felled timber, being extremely active and impossible to capture without a net. One member of this group, Epidelus wallacei Thoms., when alive, is covered with a beautiful lemon-coloured powder, which is all too easily rubbed off, Museum specimens being always of a dirty yellow-brown colour. Mt. Matang is difficult to collect upon, as it is everywhere very steep, with the exception of one fairly good path in places, leading to the summit; and where it is easy to get through the old jungle, it is generally too dark and shady, all the insect-life buzzing about at the tops of the trees. For this

reason, on a fine day, the top of the mountain was a good collecting-ground, the summit having been cleared and only small bushes growing there; the so-called rare things come flying up from the jungle below from all sides, and these, with luck, may be captured with a net. At another peak we cleared, at 2500 feet, where there was just room for three people to stand and wield nets, on one day six species of Coleoptera came flying over the top, all the same colourmarking, red and black three Cerambycidae (Ephies dilaticornis Pasc,12 Erythrus apiculatus Pasc, and E. sp. ?), all rare, two Lycidae, and a Telephorid, all three common. In jungle-collecting a great number of species are taken singly, which are not met with again in a few months' work; but this is bound to happen in thick jungle-country, as it is so difficult to get at their haunts. When one looks down from Matang all round, as far as the eye can see, the whole country one sea of trees, impossible to collect in, except on jungle-paths and clearings, to talk of things being rare is probably inaccurate. The result of collecting specimens of some of the more conspicuous families during these two months may be of interest. Of Longicornia, 50 species of Lamiidae were taken in December, and 20 more added between January 11th-February 15th, most of the December insects having disappeared by then and were not again met with. The Cerambycidae were in more equal numbers during this period, 17 species in December, and 19 added in January and February, eight of them coming to the flowering-tree, Vernonia arborea. Another family which is well represented is the Anthribidae, 52 species and a great number of specimens, practically all on dead timber, very active and difficult to capture, dead branches generally impeding one's collecting. The Curculionidae, as usual, were very plentiful and apparently endless; I hope a few of these will help towards Dr. Sharp's estimate of 200,000 species for the whole world. I should not be surprised if Borneo produced 10,000 species. The three members of the genus Apion captured here all [[continued in April p.73]] occurred at about 3000 feet, which is interesting, as they are so much better represented in the Temperate Region. Nearly all the Carabidae taken were found running on fallen trees, or under bark, or getting into crevices. The fine genus Catascopus gave me many anxious moments, their great eyes seemed to see everything that was going on. The terrestrial species are very scarce in the jungle country. The Cicindelidae are well represented on Matang, 14 species being taken in this short time: C. aurulenta F., common up to 1000 feet; C. versicolor McL.13, rather scarce here ; C. longipalpis Horn14, apparently rare, but very small and difficult to mark down, as it appears to love dark damp places, generally sitting on a wet mossy rock. Dilatotarsa tricondyloides Gestro, very rare in these months, only two being taken, in a very precipitous natural clearing made by a fallen giant. Odontocheila analis F., very common from the foot tip to 1000 feet. Four species of Therates were captured, all flying up from jungle-paths, and, as a rule, settling on ferns, between 1000-2000 feet seemed to be their chief haunt: T. batesi Thoms. and T. crinys Bates15, fairly common; T. dimidiatus Dej.16, very common ; T. spectabilis Sch.17, apparently rare, as it is a fine, conspicuous insect; also five species of Tricondyla and Collyris, I took a great number of these later on at Quop as they seem to prefer the low ground. But Tricondyla cyanea Dej., subsp. wallacei Thorns., was most difficult to capture, as it always chose the largest tree-trunk to run up and dodge round; I found the best way to catch specimens was to dab my handkerchief upon them, as hard as I could, and they always came out undamaged. Twenty-four species of Cleridae were taken, all, with one exception, on dead timber, matching the bark most wonderfully. During the wet weather, a great deal of time was spent in shaking dead leaves, etc., and examining Ants' and Termites' nests, which resulted in 70 species of Pselaphidae18 and many other things; and in bark-hunting, the stripped-off sheets of which concealed many Clavicorns and Passalidae. Cases of Coleoptera mimicking Hymenoptera are many. The small Cerambycid Epania singapurensis Thoms., when on the wing, is hard to pick out from a small black bee, Melipona vidua Lep.19, which haunts every clearing.20 I only captured sixteen specimens of the beetle and could have taken many thousands of the bee. Many species of the genus Oberea mimic Braconidae, and the rare Nedytisis obreoides Pasc, when on the wing, could not be recognised as a beetle. A Mordella with hyaline elytra completely deceived me, when it was buzzing about in the net, and, as it was extremely active, I was afraid of being stung.

I left Matang on February 15th with great regret. What one might collect there in a few years would run into thousands of species: its marvellous vegetation, huge trees, wonderful pitcher-plants and ferns, its great drawback the lack of flowering trees in reach of a net and its greatest horror the leeches. I spent a few days at Kuching and then left for Quop, where I was very fortunate to have the loan of a Mission Bungalow, close to a large Dayak house. This proved to be a very good collectingcentre, as there were several Dayak paths, leading out in different directions into patches of old jungle in low swampy country, and several steep hills dotted about still clothed with good jungle; there was also a good deal of second growth, useless to the entomologist and to be hurried through. All the good land had been cleared from time to time by the Dayaks for their paddi, as they farm in the most extravagant way, never growing paddi on the same piece of ground for more than one year, and then letting it revert to jungle for about fifteen years, so that the only ground that escapes the axe anywhere near a Dayak house is either too swampy or too steep; but anyhow they had left enough for me, as with hard work I added nearly 2000 species to my collection. The Dayak roads here were very tricky and tiring to walk on, as they were Batang roads that is, trees of various sizes felled through swampy jungle, and laid end to end for miles, and they needed very careful walking on by a European in boots, as they were always very wet and greasy, the native with his bare feet having a great advantage. My best collecting-ground, Gunong Sibinis, was reached after a steady (or rather, unsteady) hour of doing the tight-rope on these trees. In many places they are raised several yards from the ground to avoid floods, and even then they get flooded in places, and to walk a flooded Batang road needed a lot of practice to do it in the correct style, to look at an insect was fatal. All the streams here were crossed by a single bamboo, sometimes with a shaky hand-rail, more often without. Arrived at the foot of Gunong Sibinis 21, which appeared to be partly sandstone, there was a very steep slippery scramble to the summit, by hanging on to the roots and creepers. At the top, which was about 1000 feet, I got my Dayaks to malce a clearing, which, after a few days, turned out most profitable, our best day's catch being 114 species of Coleoptera. Three days after the clearing was made we captured a great number of Longicorns of the family Clytidae, which were attracted by the dying foliage and timber Xylotrechus, Demonax, Perissus, and Chlorophorus. Forty-three species of these were captured at Quop, and sixty altogether, of which, I believe thirtv-eight to be new. Some were attracted to flowering trees, which 1 was more successful in finding here. We could tell which trees were in flower high above our heads, without being able to see a flower, by the buzzing of insect-life. Whatever height the trees were the Dayaks would go to the top. climbing by the creepers and rattans; and they would cut off several huge limbs covered with blossom for me to stand by and capture whatever chanced to come; and they would stay up aloft and fill their bottles, by shaking the insects on the great sprays of blossom into their nets. The flowering trees which produced the most Coleoptera were Venionia arborea, Maesa sp., two species of Elaeocarpus, and two species of Eugenia. The chief visitors to these trees were Cerambycidae, Elateridae, Cetoniidae, Curculionidae (including 21 species of Balaninus, probably nearly all new), many small Brenthidae, Helota (a conspicuous genus of Clavicornes), Halticidae, and Galerucidae. Along the jungle-paths many beautiful members of the genus Glenea (Lamiidae) were met with, perhaps 35 species in all. Three specimens of the magnificent Cetoniid, Diceros borneensis Wallace, were captured as they were flying over mountain-tops, on three different occasions, and one fine of Diceros peteli Buquet.22 was taken in the same way, which shows the difficulty of taking a series of these active insects. The Rutelidae must also be numerous, but are equally hard to find, only seven species of Parastasia were taken two were dug out of very rotten wood, P. ephippium Voll.23 and the other probably nov. sp. ; P. 4-muculata Wat.24 was captured on a flowering-tree, Eugenia, sp. ; and P. confluens West.25, the commonest, came to light. It was on a jungle-path at Quop that I met with the remarkable Orthopteron, Condylodera sp. (not C. tricondyloides West.. which I have taken in Java), a perfect mimic of Tricondyla cyanipes Esch.26, subsp. cavifrons Sch. I had a good look at it on a leaf by the side of the path, and thought it was the Tricondyla until I had it in the bottle; I took five specimens of the Tricondyla, which is

probably a common insect, in the same place. After leaving Quop I made a most interesting expedition with Major J. C. Moulton, who has written an account of it in the "Zoologist," 1914, pp. 361-374, 414-431 27, up the Sadong River, then to Mt. Merinjak near the Dutch border, and across country to the headwaters of the Sarawak River, and down to Kuching. The great majority of the Coleoptera taken at Merinjak were again new to me, which goes to show how every hill and mountain in a great island like Borneo must be thoroughly explored before we have any idea of the tremendous wealth of species the island will produce. Wallace during his stay in Borneo spent nearly the whole of his time on the Sadong River, at Simunjan, and collected nearly 2000 species of Coleoptera, of which nearly 300 were Longicorns. During my short stay I obtained examples of approximatelv 3189 species, of which 369 were Longicorns, about 90 of these probably nov. spp. We must remember that Wallace was collecting practically all Orders, whereas I was specializing more or less : No. of species Cicindelidae Carabidae Gyrinidae Clavicornia : Staphylinidae Pselaphidae Scydmaenidae Coccinellidae Histeridae Other families Cleridae Buprestidae Elateridae 42 Euenemidae 90 2 Dascillidae Lycidae Telephoridae, etc. 90 Heteromera 104 Copridae 38 Passalidae 34 Lucanidae 40 Melolonthidae 228 Rutelidae 67 Dynastidae 91 Cetoniidae 110 -----3189 -----A few of the new forms have been described by G. J. Arrow 28, M. Cameron29, G. C. Champion30, and myself, in the "Trans. Ent. Soc. London," "Ann. and Mag. Nat. History," and the "Ent. Monthly Magazine." Esher. January 1919. } } } 303 52 15 22 44 Prionidae Lamiidae 128 Cerambycidae Chrysomelidae : Criocerinae. Clythrinae. Eumolpinae. Chrysomelinae. } } } 154 } 90 220 34 24 2 208 159

53 Halticinae 26 Galerucinae 7 Hispinae 56 Cassidinae

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Transcribed, annotated, and hyperlinked by Martin Laverty, March 2013 Gilbert Ernest Bryant (1878-1965). He was on the staff of the Natural History Museum from 1949-1965 John Coney Moulton (1886-1926) Gur = Flix douard Gurin-Mneville (1799-1874) Wallace = Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) G. & P. = Gory & Achille Rmy Percheron (1797-1869) Gory = Hippolyte Louis Gory (1800-1852) Gestro = Raffaello Gestro (1845-1936) Thoms. = James Thomson (1828-1897) Deyr. = Achille Deyrolle (1813-1865) F. = Johan Christian Fabricius (1745-1808) Pasc. = Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (1813-1893) McL. = ? Alexander Macleay (17671848) Horn = Walther Hermann Richard Horn (1871 1939) Bates = Henry Walter Bates (18251892) Dej. = Pierre Franois Marie Auguste Dejean (17801845) Sch. = Hermann Rudolph Schaum (1819-1865) Now Pselaphinae Lep. = Amde Louis Michel le Peletier, comte de Saint-Fargeau (17701845) In Popular Science Monthly pp.80-89 for Nov. 1902, A.C.Haddon writes in The Omen Animals of Sarawak that this bee is considerd lucky by the Land Dayaks, but unlucky by the Iban G.Sibinis appears to be a misprint: G.Siburan, about 5km S of Quop and 1090 feet in height, is more likely Buquet. = Jean Baptiste Lucien Buquet (18071889) Voll. = Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven (1816-1880) Wat. = George Robert Waterhouse (18101888) West. = John Obadiah Westwood (18051893) Esch. = Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz (17931831) Zoological Notes on a Collecting Expedition in Borneo [Annotated version] in which Bryant and Moulton pay homage to A.R.Wallace by following his track collecting from Kuching to Simunjon, Tebakang, up the S.Kayan, across to S.Sarawak, and back to Kuching. Gilbert John Arrow (1873-1948) Malcolm Cameron (1873-1954) George Charles Champion (1851-1927)