THE BUTTERFLIES OF LOWER EGYPT. G3 



My largest ediisa female is 57mm. Among the Lijcaeniilae I may refer 

 to Plebeiiis [Lycaena) loewii as being one of the most interesting. The 

 male is of a most brilliant hue, reminding one of hijlan. The female 

 is dimorphic. In other countries than Egypt it is brown with white 

 spots; in Egypt this form is very exceptional and I only know of one 

 specimen. The usual form might be described as of a bright blue, 

 rather duller than the male, but perhaps more correctly as brown 

 covered almost completely with blue scales ; the brown is almost con- 

 fined to an ill-defined suffusion extending from the cell to the costa of 

 the forewing, giving the insect an almost smudged appearance even in 

 perfect specimens. It bears the same relation to the brown form as 

 the blue form of the female icanis usual in Ireland does to the normal 

 form in England. It is very local and only found near the foodplant, 

 around which it dutters. The males are somewhat pugnacious, and 

 are rather difticult to obtain in good condition. The only locality I 

 know of near Cairo is the Mokattam Hills, where it is not uncommon 

 in April in a space about a quarter of a mile long and about a hundred 

 yards broad ; it might therefore be easily exterminated. 



A few other specimens have been noted in other parts of the 

 Arabian desert. The foodplant is Astrayalits furskalfi, and in the 

 female's method of oviposition we have a remarkable instance of how 

 an instinct devoted to one purpose evidently assists the preservation of 

 the species in another way. 



After apparently aimless fluttering round a bush, she finally settles 

 on one of the larger branches and walks down it into the centre of the 

 plant, and selecting a leaf-bad which is quite low down and scarcely 

 visible, deposits her egg close by its side. In what stage the hot weather 

 is passed I am unable to say definitely, but the advantage of laying her 

 eggs low down in the centre of the bush is threefold. The young 

 leaves which bud in the late winter or spring, first start from the lower 

 stems; by placing them in a sheltered position they are protected from 

 the fierce hot winds which blow with great persistence throughout the 

 summer; and thirdly, and quite inadvertently, they are protected from 

 the camels, which in spite of the formidable thorns browse down the 

 plant almost to the ground when the scanty forage in the desert 

 becomes still further reduced by the summer heats. 



It may be of interest to note that when finding a place in which to 

 oviposit the female rotates the hindwings in the manner so noticeable 

 in many species of the males of the Lycaenidae when at rest after a 

 flight, and which has been presumed to be, and probably is, a stridu- 

 lating process. Excitement is no doubt the stimulus in this case. 



ViracJiola liria is one of tbose interesting butterflies in which the 

 sexes are differently coloured ; in this case^the male is a bright copper 

 and the female brown with a bluish suffusion. I have seen no trace 

 of red in any of the numerous females I have examined, and infer that 

 the brighter colour of the male is a later development. In coloration 

 and habits it recalls very vividly to my mind Zezius chrysonialliis, so 

 frequent in old days in the neighbourhood of Colombo, The males 

 fly vigorously round flowering shrubs in the full sunshine and the 

 females are rather more secluded in their habits, but they do not, in 

 any way, seek concealment, and the brighter colour of the male is 

 probably an indication of greater and more active vigour. The larva 

 feeds, as do other species of the genus, in the interior of pomegranates, 



