NOTES ON TUNISIAN AND ALGERIAN INSECTS. 83 



seemed quite unaccountable. To my mind the moral is " Don't be 

 satisfied with taking only worn specimens," or come to the conclusion 

 that the species is going over, try elsewhere and you will probably find 

 tresh ^^ s and 5 s too in the field in which they emerge. 



I should mention that I did not hear of a single specimen of Culias 

 hijale being taken or seen. 



Notes on Tunisian and Algerian Insects. 



(Concluded from page 70.) 

 By P. A. BUXTON, F.E.S., M.B.O.U. 



On the evening of April 8th we moved from Batna to El Kantara. 

 Here I remained till the 18th, and as I collected a good many interesting- 

 creatures, it will be profitable to describe the country worked. There 

 is a range of rocky hills running east and west for many miles, quite 

 impassable except for men on foot. This range is divided by a 

 deep gorge through which runs a river, an ancient highway, and a 

 railroad. The words "El Kantara" signify "The Bridge," in reference 

 to a Roman bridge, which still spans the river. The level of the 

 bottom of the gorge is 1,500ft., and from this the very barest of rocky 

 hills rise, perhaps another 1,500ft. To the north of the gorge lies 

 country which is fairly typical of the high Plateau, to the south you 

 find an oasis, and stony desert. The transformation is abrupt and 

 striking, though travellers have, perhaps, exaggerated when they state 

 that in a few yards j'ou step from a land of pines into a land of palms. 

 Most of our collecting was done in the desert, though the very comfort- 

 able little French Hotel of Madame Bertrand lies on the northern side. 

 The desert is a waste of loose stones of all sizes, interspersed with 

 cushions of the Hawkweed ZolUkoff'eria spiniilom and small bushes of 

 jujube [Zizyplms, sp.) In some places there is a sparse growth of a 

 barley-like grass, Stipa tortilis. This last is a most unpleasant plant ; 

 the seeds are provided with a sharp beak, break easily from the parent 

 plant, and then worry their way through your clothes, and, if you are 

 careless, right through your skin also. Even the Arab's hide is by no 

 means impervious to this pest. This list of plants by no means 

 pretends to be exhaustive, but must give the botanical reader an idea 

 of a flora characterized by spikes, spines and tough woody stems. 

 This forbidding country offers some obstruction to the man with the 

 net unless he wears the local rope-soled shoe, with the aid of which, 

 however, he will soon find himself running over the loose stones. 

 These shoes only last ten days, but then they cost 6id. per pair. They 

 are indispensible. With surprising abruptness the desert passes into 

 the oasis. This is a grove of date palms, some miles long. Here and 

 there you may find a village built of mud and surrounded by a few 

 very barren gardens. To a naturalist the palms and the gardens are 

 most uninteresting. The principal butterfly of the oasis is Paranje 

 aef/eria type form, just as in South Europe. The first spot in the 

 marginal series on the hindwing is always discernable in my short 

 series (all g' s), but never well developed. In the gardens Pirn'^ rapae 

 flies. It is to be noted that Dr. Ernest Hartert found this species as far 

 south as El Golea, on his journey to Insalah. It occurred in the oases, 

 never in the desert. ^''Hothschild has determined Hartert's specimens 



* Nouit. Zoolog., Vol. xx., p. 110. 



