lodon ensifer) has the thorax covered by a large triangular
horny shield, two and a half inches long, with serrated
edges, a somewhat wavy, hollow surface, and a faint
median line, so as very closely to resemble a leaf. The
glossy wing-coverts (when fully expanded, more than nine
THE GREAT-SHIELDED GRASSHOPPER.
inches across) are of a fine green colour and so beautifully
veined as to imitate closely some of the large shining
tropical leaves. The body is short, and terminated in the
female by a long curved sword-like ovipositor (not seen
in the cut), and the legs are all long and strongly-spined.
These insects are sluggish in their motions, depending
for safety on their resemblance to foliage, their horny
shield and wing-coverts, and their spiny legs.
The large islands to the east of New Guinea are very
little known, but the occurrence of crimson lories, which
are quite absent from Australia, and of cockatoos allied to
those of New Guinea and the Moluccas, shows that they
belong to the Papuan group ; and we are thus able to
define the Malay Archipelago as extending eastward to the
Solomon’s Islands. New Caledonia and the New Hebrides,
on the other hand, seem more nearly allied to Australia;
and the rest of the islands of the Pacific, though very poor
in all forms of life, possess a few peculiarities which
compel us to class them as a separate group. Although
as a matter of convenience I have always separated the
Moluccas as a distinct zoological group from New Guinea,
I have at the same time pointed out that its fauna was
chiefly derived from that island, just as that of Timor was
chiefly derived from Australia. If we were dividing the
Australian region for zoological purposes alone, we should
form three great groups : one comprising Australia, Timor,
and Tasmania; another New Guinea, with the islands
from Bouru to the Solomon’s group; and the third comprising
the greater part of the Pacific Islands.
The relation of the New Guinea fauna to that of
Australia is very close. I t is best marked in the Mammalia
by the abundance of marsupials, and the almost