Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 41

As these lofty mounds of earth have all been carried up from beneath the surface, a cave of corresponding dimensions is necessarily scooped out below, and here, under the mult.i.tude of cupolas and pinnacles which canopy it above, the termites hollow out the royal chamber for their queen, with s.p.a.cious nurseries surrounding it on all sides. Store-rooms and magazines occupy the lower apartments, and all are connected by arched galleries, long pa.s.sages, and doorways of the most intricate and elaborate construction. In the centre and underneath the s.p.a.cious dome is the recess for the queen--a hideous creature, with the head and thorax of an ordinary termite, but a body swollen to a hundred times its usual and proportionate bulk, and presenting the appearance of a ma.s.s of shapeless pulp. From this great progenitrix proceed the myriads which people the subterranean hive, consisting, like the communities of the genuine ants, of labourers and soldiers, which are destined never to acquire a fuller development than that of larvas, and the perfect insects which in due time become invested with wings and take their departing flight from the cave. But their new equipment seems only destined to facilitate their dispersion from the parent nest, which takes place at dusk; and almost as quickly as they leave it they divest themselves of their ineffectual wings, waving them impatiently and twisting them in every direction till they become detached and drop off, and the swarm, within a few hours of their emanc.i.p.ation, become a prey to the night-jars and bats, which are instantly attracted to them as they issue in a cloud from the ground. I am not prepared to say that the other insectivorous birds would not gladly make a meal of the termites, but, seeing that in Ceylon their numbers are chiefly kept in check by the crepuscular birds, it is observable, at least as a coincidence, that the dispersion of the swarm generally takes place at _twilight_. Those that escape the _caprimulgi_ lose their wings before morning, and are then disposed of by the crows.

The strange peculiarity of the omnivorous ravages of the white ants is that they shrink from the light, in all their expeditions for providing food they construct a covered pathway of moistened clay, and their galleries above ground extend to an incredible distance from the central nest. No timber, except ebony and ironwood, which are too hard, and those which are strongly impregnated with camphor or aromatic oils, which they dislike, presents any obstacle to their ingress. I have had a case of wine filled, in the course of two days, with almost solid clay, and only discovered the presence of the white ants by the bursting of the corks. I have had a portmanteau in my tent so peopled with them in the course of a single night that the contents were found worthless in the morning. In an incredibly short time a detachment of these pests will destroy a press full of records, reducing the paper to fragments; and a shelf of books will be tunnelled into a gallery if it happen to be in their line of march.

The timbers of a house when fairly attacked are eaten from within till the beams are reduced to an absolute sh.e.l.l, so thin that it may be punched through with the point of the finger: and even kyanized wood, unless impregnated with an extra quant.i.ty of corrosive sublimate, appears to occasion them no inconvenience. The only effectual precaution for the protection of furniture is incessant vigilance--the constant watching of every article, and its daily removal from place to place, in order to baffle their a.s.saults.

They do not appear in the hills above the elevation of 2000 feet. One species of white ant, the _Termes Taprobanes_, was at one time believed by Mr. Walker to be peculiar to the island, but it has recently been found in Sumatra and Borneo, and in some parts of Hindustan.

HYMENOPTERA. _Mason Wasp_.--In Ceylon as in all other countries, the order of hymenopterous insects arrests us less by the beauty of their forms than the marvels of their sagacity and the achievements of their instinct. A fossorial wasp of the family of _Sphegidoe_,[1] which is distinguished by its metallic l.u.s.tre, enters by the open windows, and disarms irritation at its movements by admiration of the graceful industry with which it stops up the keyholes and similar apertures with clay in order to build in them a cell, into which it thrusts the pupa of some other insect, within whose body it has previously introduced its own eggs; and, enclosing the whole with moistened earth, the young parasite, after undergoing its transformations, gnaws its way into light, and emerges a four-winged fly.[2]

[Footnote 1: It belongs to the genus _Pelopoeus_, _P. Spinoloe_, St.

Fargeau. The _Ampulex compressa_, which drags about the larvae of c.o.c.kroaches into which it has implanted its eggs, belongs to the same family.]

[Footnote 2: Mr. E. L. Layard has given an interesting account of this Mason wasp in the _Annals and Magazine of Nat. History_ for May, 1853.

"I have frequently," he says, "selected one of these flies for observation, and have seen their labours extend over a period of a fortnight or twenty days; sometimes only half a cell was completed in a day, at others as much as two. I never saw more than twenty cells in one nest, seldom indeed that number, and whence the caterpillars were procured was always to me a mystery. I have seen thirty or forty brought in of a species which I knew to be very rare in the perfect state, and which I had sought for in vain, although I knew on what plant they fed.

"Then again how are they disabled by the wasp, and yet not injured so as to cause their immediate death? Die they all do, at least all that I have ever tried to rear, after taking them from the nest.

"The perfected fly never effects its egress from the closed aperture, through which the caterpillars were inserted, and when cells are placed end to end, as they are in many instances, the outward end of each is always selected. I cannot detect any difference in the thickness in the crust of the cell to cause this uniformity of practice. It is often as much as half an inch through, of great hardness, and as far as I can see impervious to air and light. How then does the enclosed fly always select the right end, and with what secretion is it supplied to decompose this mortar?"]

_Wasps_.--Of the wasps, one formidable species (_Sphex ferruginea_ of St. Fargeau), which is common to India and most of the eastern islands, is regarded with the utmost dread by the unclad natives, who fly precipitately on finding themselves in the vicinity[1] of its nests, which are of such ample dimensions, that when suspended from a branch, they often measure upwards of six feet in length.[2]

[Footnote 1: In ought to be remembered in travelling in the forests of Ceylon that sal volatile applied immediately is a specific for the sting of a wasp.]

[Footnote 2: At the January (1839) meeting of the Entomological Society, Mr. Whitehouse exhibited portions of a wasps' nest from Ceylon, between seven and eight feet long and two feet in diameter, and showed that the construction of the cells was perfectly a.n.a.logous to those of the hive bee, and that when connected each has a tendency to a.s.sume a circular outline. In one specimen where there were three cells united the outer part was circular, whilst the portions common to the three formed straight walls. From this Singhalese nest Mr. Whitehouse demonstrated that the wasps at the commencement of their comb proceed slowly, forming the bases of several together, whereby they a.s.sume the hexagonal shape, whereas, if constructed separately, he thought each single cell would be circular. See _Proc. Ent. Soc_. vol. iii. p. xvi.]

_Bees_.--Bees of several species and genera, some divested of stings, and some in size scarcely exceeding a house-fly, deposit their honey in hollow trees, or suspend their combs from a branch; and the spoils of their industry form one of the chief resources of the uncivilised Veddahs, who collect the wax in their upland forests, to be bartered for arrow points and clothes in the lowlands.[1] I have never heard of an instance of persons being attacked by the bees of Ceylon, and hence the natives a.s.sert, that those most productive of honey are dest.i.tute of stings.

[Footnote 1: A gentleman connected with the department of the Surveyor-General writes to me that he measured a honey-comb which he found fastened to the overhanging branch of a small tree in the forest near Adam's Peak, and found it nine links of his chain or about six feet in length and a foot in breadth where it was attached to the branch, but tapering towards the other extremity. "It was a single comb with a layer of cells on either side, but so weighty that the branch broke by the strain."]

_The Carpenter Bee_.--The operations of one of the most interesting of the tribe, the Carpenter bee,[1] I have watched with admiration from the window of the Colonial Secretary's official residence at Kandy. So soon as the day grew warm, these active creatures were at work perforating the wooden columns which supported the verandah. They poised themselves on their s.h.i.+ning purple wings, as they made the first lodgment in the wood, enlivening the work with an uninterrupted hum of delight, which was audible to a considerable distance. When the excavation had proceeded so far as that the insect could descend into it, the music was suspended, but renewed from time to time, as the little creature came to the orifice to throw out the chips, to rest, or to enjoy the fresh air.

By degrees, a mound of saw-dust was formed at the base of the pillar, consisting of particles abraded by the mandibles of the bee; and these, when the hollow was completed to the depth of several inches, were partially replaced in the excavation after being agglutinated to form part.i.tions between the eggs, as they are deposited within.

[Footnote 1: _Xylocopa tenuiscapa_, Westw.; X. _latipes_, Drury.]

_Ants_.--As to ants, I apprehend that, notwithstanding their numbers and familiarity, information is very imperfect relative to the varieties and habits of these marvellous insects in Ceylon.[1] In point of mult.i.tude it is scarcely an exaggeration to apply to them the figure of "the sands of the sea." They are everywhere; in the earth, in the houses, and in the trees; they are to be seen in every room and cupboard, and almost on every plant in the jungle. To some of the latter they are, perhaps, attracted by the sweet juices secreted by the aphides and coccidae; and such is the pa.s.sion of the ants for sugar, and their wonderful faculty of discovering it, that the smallest particle of a substance containing it, though placed in the least conspicuous position, is quickly covered with them, where not a single one may have been visible a moment before.

But it is not sweet substances alone that they attack; no animal or vegetable matter comes amiss to them; no aperture appears too small to admit them; it is necessary to place everything which it may be desirable to keep free from their invasion, under the closest cover, or on tables with cups of water under every foot. As scavengers, they are invaluable; and as ants never sleep, but work without cessation, during the night as well as by day, every particle of decaying vegetable or putrid animal matter is removed with inconceivable speed and certainty.

In collecting sh.e.l.ls, I have been able to turn this propensity to good account; by placing them within their reach, the ants in a few days will remove every vestige of the mollusc from the innermost and otherwise inaccessible whorls; thus avoiding all risk of injuring the enamel by any mechanical process.

[Footnote 1: Mr. Jerdan, in a series of papers in the thirteenth volume of the _Annals of Natural History_, has described forty-seven species of ants in Southern India. But M. Nietner has recently forwarded to the Berlin Museum upwards of seventy species taken by him in Ceylon, chiefly in the western province and the vicinity of Colombo, Of these many are identical with those noted by Mr. Jerdan as belonging to the Indian continent. One (probably _Drepanognathus saltator_ of Jerdan) is described by M. Nietner as "moving by jumps of several inches at a spring."]

But the a.s.saults of the ants are not confined to dead animals alone, they attack equally such small insects as they can overcome, or find disabled by accidents or wounds; and it is not unusual to see some hundreds of them surrounding a maimed beetle, or a bruised c.o.c.kroach, and hurrying it along in spite of its struggles. I have, on more than one occasion, seen a contest between them and one of the viscous ophidians, _Coecilia glutinosa_[1], a reptile resembling an enormous earthworm, common in the Kandyan hills, of an inch in diameter, and nearly two feet in length. It would seem as if the whole community had been summoned and turned out for such a prodigious effort; they surrounded their victim literally in tens of thousands, inflicting wounds on all parts, and forcing it along towards their nest in spite of resistance. In one instance to which I was a witness, the conflict lasted for the latter part of a day, but towards evening the Caecilia was completely exhausted, and in the morning it had totally disappeared, having been carried away either whole or piecemeal by its a.s.sailants.

[Footnote 1: See ante, Pt, 1. ch. iii. p. 201]

The species I here allude to, is a very small ant, called the _Koombiya_ in Ceylon. There is a still more minute description, which frequents the caraffes and toilet vessels, and is evidently a distinct species. A third, probably the _Formica nidificans_ of Jerdan, is black, of the same size as that last mentioned, and, from its colour, called the _Kalu koombiya_ by the natives. In the houses its propensities and habits are the same as the others; but I have observed that it frequents the trees more profusely, forming small paper cells for its young, like miniature wasps' nests, in which it deposits its eggs, suspending them from the leaf of a plant.

The most formidable of all is the great red ant or Dimiya.[1] It is particularly abundant in gardens, and on fruit trees; it constructs its dwellings by glueing the leaves of such species as are suitable from their shape and pliancy into hollow b.a.l.l.s, which it lines with a kind of transparent paper, like that manufactured by the wasp. I have watched them at the interesting operation of forming their dwellings;--a line of ants standing on the edge of one leaf bring another into contact with it, and hold both together with their mandibles till their companions within attach them firmly by means of their adhesive paper, the a.s.sistants outside moving along as the work proceeds. If it be necessary to draw closer a leaf too distant to be laid hold of by the immediate workers, they form a chain by depending one from the other till the object is reached, when it is at length brought into contact, and made fast by cement.

[Footnote 1: _Formica smaragdina_, Fab.]

Like all their race, these ants are in perpetual motion, forming lines on the ground along which they pa.s.s, in continual procession to and from the trees on which they reside. They are the most irritable of the whole order in Ceylon, biting with such intense ferocity as to render it difficult for the unclad natives to collect the fruit from, the mango trees, which the red ants especially frequent. They drop from the branches upon travellers in the jungle, attacking them with venom and fury, and inflicting intolerable pain both upon animals and man. On examining the structure of the head through a microscope, I found that the mandibles, instead of merely meeting in contact, are so hooked as to cross each other at the points, whilst the inner line is sharply serrated throughout its entire length; thus occasioning the intense pain of their bite, as compared with that of the ordinary ant.

To check the ravages of the coffee bug (_Lecanium coffeoe_, Walker), which for some years past has devastated some of the plantations in Ceylon, the experiment was made of introducing the red ants, who feed greedily on the Coccus. But the remedy threatened to be attended with some inconvenience, for the Malabar Coolies, with bare and oiled skins, were so frequently and fiercely a.s.saulted by the ants as to endanger their stay on the estates.

The ants which burrow in the ground in Ceylon are generally, but not invariably, black, and some of them are of considerable size. One species, about the third of an inch in length, is abundant in the hills, and especially about the roots of trees, where they pile up the earth in circular heaps round the entrance to their nests, and in doing this I have observed a singular ill.u.s.tration of their instinct. To carry up each particle of sand by itself would be an endless waste of labour, and to carry two or more loose ones securely would be to them embarra.s.sing, if not impossible; they therefore overcome the difficulty by glueing together with their saliva so much earth or sand as is sufficient for a burden, and each one may be seen hurrying up from below with his load, carrying it to the top of the circular heap outside, and throwing it over, whilst it is so strongly attached as to roll to the bottom without breaking asunder.

The ants I have been here describing are inoffensive, differing in this particular from the Dimiya and another of similar size and ferocity, which is called by the Singhalese _Kaddiya_; and they have a legend ill.u.s.trative of their alarm for the bites of the latter, to the effect that the cobra de capello invested the Kaddiya with her own venom in admiration of the singular courage displayed by these little creatures.[1]

[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, pt i. ch vi. p.

23.]

LEPIDOPTERA. _b.u.t.terflies_.--b.u.t.terflies in the interior of the island are comparatively rare, and, contrary to the ordinary belief, they are seldom to be seen in the suns.h.i.+ne, They frequent the neighbourhood of the jungle, and especially the vicinity of the rivers and waterfalls, living mainly in the shade of the moist foliage, and returning to it in haste after the shortest flights, as if their slender bodies were speedily dried up and exhausted by the exposure to the intense heat.

Among the largest and most gaudy of the Ceylon Lepidoptera is the great black and yellow b.u.t.terfly (_Ornithoptera darsius_, Gray); the upper wings, of which measure six inches across, are of deep velvet black, the lower, ornamented by large particles of satiny yellow, through which the sunlight pa.s.ses, and few insects can compare with it in beauty, as it hovers over the flowers of the heliotrope, which furnish the favourite food of the perfect fly, although the caterpillar feeds on the aristolochia and the _betel leaf_ and suspends its chrysalis from its drooping tendrils.

Next in size as to expanse of wing, though often exceeding it in breadth, is the black and blue _Papilio Polymnestor_, which darts rapidly through the air, alighting on the ruddy flowers of the hibiscus, or the dark green foliage of the citrus, on which it deposits its eggs.

The larvae of this species are green with white bands, and have a hump on the fourth or fifth segment. From this hump the caterpillar, on being irritated, protrudes a singular horn of an orange colour, bifurcate at the extremity, and covered with a pungent mucilaginous secretion. This is evidently intended as a weapon of defence against the attack of the ichneumon flies, that deposit their eggs in its soft body, for when the grub is p.r.i.c.ked, either by the ovipositor of the ichneumon, or by any other sharp instrument, the horn is at once protruded, and struck upon the offending object with unerring aim.

Amongst the more common of the larger b.u.t.terflies is the _P. Hector_, with gorgeous crimson spots set in the black velvet of the inferior wings; these, when fresh, are shot with a purple blush, equalling in splendour the azure of the European "_Emperor_."

Another b.u.t.terfly, but belonging to a widely different group, is the "sylph" (_Hestia Jasonia_), called by the Europeans by the various names of _Floater, Spectre,_ and _Silver-paper-fly_, as indicative of its graceful flight. It is found only in the deep shade of the damp forest, frequenting the vicinity of pools of water and cascades, about which it sails heedless of the spray, the moisture of which may even be beneficial in preserving the elasticity of its thin and delicate wings, that bend and undulate in the act of flight.

The _Lycoenidoe_[1], a particularly attractive group, abound near the enclosures of cultivated grounds, and amongst the low shrubs edging the patenas, flitting from flower to flower, inspecting each in turn, and as if attracted by their beauty, in the full blaze of sun-light; and shunning exposure less sedulously than the other diurnals. Some of the more robust kinds[2] are magnificent in the bright light, from the splendour of their metallic blues and glowing purples, but they yield in elegance of form and variety to their tinier and more delicately-coloured congeners.

[Footnote 1: _Lycana polyommatus, &c._]

[Footnote 2: _Amblypodia pseudocentaurus, &c._]

Short as is the eastern twilight, it has its own peculiar forms, and the naturalist marks with interest the small, but strong, _Hesperiidoe_,[1]

hurrying, by abrupt and jerking flights, to the scented blossoms of the champac or the sweet night-blowing moon-flower; and, when darkness gathers around, we can hear, though hardly distinguish amid the gloom, the humming of the powerful wings of innumerable hawk moths, which hover with their long proboscides inserted into the starry petals of the periwinkle.

[Footnote 1: _Pamphila hesperia, &c._]

Conspicuous amidst these nocturnal moths is the richly-coloured _Acherontia Satanas_, one of the Singhalese representatives of our Death's head moth, which utters a sharp and stridulous cry when seized.

This sound has been variously conjectured to be produced by the friction of its thorax against the abdomen, and Reaumur believed it to be caused by rubbing the palpi against the tongue. I have never been able to observe either motion, and Mr. E. L. Layard is of opinion that the sound is emitted from two apertures concealed by tufts of wiry bristles thrown out from each side of the inferior portion of the thorax.[1]

[Footnote 1: There is another variety of the same moth in Ceylon which closely resembles it in its markings, but I have never detected in it the utterance of this curious cry. It is smaller than the _A. Satanas_, and, like it, often enters dwellings at night, attracted by the lights; but I have not found its larvae, although that of the other species is common on several widely different plants.]

_Moths._--Among the strictly nocturnal _Lepidoptera_ are some gigantic species. Of these the cinnamon-eating _Atlas_, often attains the dimensions of nearly a foot in the stretch of its superior wings. It is very common in the gardens about Colombo, and its size, and the transparent talc-like spots in its wings cannot fail to strike even the most careless saunterer. But little inferior to it in size is the famed Tusseh silk moth[1], which feeds on the country almond (_Terminalia catappa_) and the palma Christi or Castor-oil plant; it is easily distinguishable from the Atlas, which has a triangular wing, whilst its [wing] is falcated, and the transparent spots are covered with a curious thread-like division drawn across them.

[Footnote 1: _Antheroea mylitta_, Drury.]

Towards the northern portions of the island this valuable species entirely displaces the other, owing to the fact that the almond and _palma Christi_ abound there. The latter plant springs up spontaneously on every manure-heap or neglected spot of ground; and might be cultivated, as in India, with great advantage, the leaf to be used as food for the caterpillar, the stalk as fodder for cattle, and the seed for the expression of castor-oil. The Dutch took advantage of this facility, and gave every encouragement to the cultivation of silk at Jaffna[1], but it never attained such a development as to become an article of commercial importance. Ceylon now cultivates no silkworms whatever, notwithstanding this abundance of the favourite food of one species; and the rich silken robes sometimes worn by the Buddhist priesthood are still imported from China and the continent of India.

[Footnote 1: The Portuguese had made the attempt previous to the arrival of the Dutch, and a strip of land on the banks of the Kalany river near Colombo, still bears the name of Orta Seda, the silk garden. The attempt of the Dutch to introduce the true silkworm, the _Bombyx mori_, took place under the governors.h.i.+p of Ryklof Van Goens, who, on handing over the administration to his successor in A.D. 1663, thus apprises him of the initiation of the experiment:--"At Jaffna Palace a trial has been undertaken to feed silkworms, and to ascertain whether silk may be reared at that station. I have planted a quant.i.ty of mulberry trees, which grow well there, and they ought to be planted in other directions."--VALENTYN, chap. xiii. The growth of the mulberry trees is noticed the year after in a report to the governor-general of India, but the subject afterwards ceased to be attended to.]

In addition to the Atlas moth and the Mylitta, there are many other _Bombycidoe_ in Ceylon; and, though the silk of some of them, were it susceptible of being unwound from the coc.o.o.n, would not bear a comparison with that of the _Bombyx mori_, or even of the Tusseh moth, it might still prove to be valuable when carded and spun. If the European residents in the colony would rear the larvae of these Lepidoptera, and make drawings of their various changes, they would render a possible service to commerce, and a certain one to entomological knowledge.